LA federal judge orders DHS to stop using force against journalists, others

LOS ANGELES (KESQ) - A Los Angeles federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to stop using force to prevent journalists, legal observer and members of the public from documenting immigration enforcement operations in the Central District of California.

The injunction prohibits federal agents from dispersing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit L.A. Press Club v. Mullin from public spaces when they are engaged in the constitutionally protected acts of observing, recording, or reporting on DHS immigration enforcement and removal operations or protests.

The order, issued Friday in Los Angeles federal court, protects people who are engaged in the constitutionally protected acts of newsgathering and public observation of government activity.

The ruling comes after more than a year of litigation brought by protesters, journalists and a legal observer who were injured by DHS agents during immigration enforcement operations and related protests across the region last year.

The order by U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera establishes enforceable limits on how federal agencies may conduct themselves when the press and public are exercising their constitutional right to protest, observe, document, and report on federal immigration enforcement.

"We are pleased with the Court's ruling,'' Matthew Borden, plaintiffs' co-counsel, said in a statement. "Demonstrators across the country have been brutalized by rubber bullets, tear gas, and other violent tactics at the hands of DHS officers. Our nation was built from protests and the free press. The government cannot suppress these rights with violence.''   

The case was filed in June 2025 by the Los Angeles Press Club, the NewsGuild-CWA, three individual journalists, two community members, and a legal observer, after DHS agents deployed militarized crowd control weapons against people protesting and documenting the sweeping  immigration raids across
Southern California.