DHS, Kristi Noem sued over alleged attacks on journalists at LA protests
A journalist takes photos during a rally in downtown Los Angeles on June 8, 2025. Inquirer.net USA photo by Robert Gamo
LOS ANGELES – Journalists and legal observers are suing the US Department of Homeland Security in Los Angeles federal court for allegedly attacking them with retaliatory violence in violation of their constitutional rights to protest and report on government actions, it was announced Friday.
The suit — brought by the Los Angeles Press Club, the NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America, three journalists, two protesters and a legal observer — alleges that the DHS use of force at demonstrations against recent immigration raids punishes and suppresses the exercise of First Amendment-protected rights.
Protesters confront police on the 101 Freeway near the Metropolitan Detention Center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
According to the complaint filed late Wednesday, DHS misuses weaponry, including chemical agents such as tear gas, rubber bullets, impact munitions, pepper balls, pepper spray, exploding grenades, batons and fists to retaliate against protesters, legal observers and reporters to create a violent spectacle the Trump administration is using as a pretext to turn the military against Californians.
A protester raises the U.S. flag after police use tear gas and flash-bangs at the Federal Building in Santa Ana, CA, on Monday, June 9, 2025. (Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register via AP)
A DHS representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Each time the community rises in protest against the federal government’s attacks on our people, DHS retaliates with sweeping, excessive force,” stated Peter Eliasberg, chief counsel at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, which represents plaintiffs.
“Federal law enforcement has brutalized demonstrators, causing disorder in a circular ploy to justify deploying military domestically against now and future protesters,” he said. “But people have the right to keep protesting the violent separation of families and ICE’s terrorizing of our people.”
A protester is arrested by by law enforcement officers in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Adam Rose, press rights chair of the L.A. Press Club, alleged that since June 6, at least seven members of the club have been subject to use of force or suffered a serious press rights violation by DHS officers.
“These journalists were just doing their job, not breaking any law,” Rose said. “Democracy depends on an informed public. An informed public depends on a press free to do its job without fearing violence by federal agents.”
Alongside the complaint is a request for a temporary restraining order, asking the court to issue an order restraining DHS before the weekend.
The application, which is supported by dozens of declarations from protesters, legal observers and journalists describing alleged DHS attacks and resulting injuries, including concussion, blood clots, bruising and burns.
Plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief.
Earlier in the week, the Press Club and two news organizations sued Los Angeles County in federal court, alleging the Sheriff’s Department has targeted media members with non-lethal but dangerous munitions and engaged in excessive force against its members who have covered recent protests.
A previous suit, filed in federal court by the Press Club and reporting network Status Coup accuses the Los Angeles Police Department and its chief of violating reporters’ rights while they were covering recent immigration raids and subsequent civil unrest. (CNS)
