A federal judge found that the plaintiffs had shown that the Department of Homeland Security “treats the simple public record of its agents as a threat” to which it responds with force.
LOS ANGELES (CN) – A federal judge in California on Friday granted class certification to plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit to protect journalists covering protests of immigration crackdowns.
US District Judge Hernán Vera found the plaintiffs, including the Los Angeles Press Club and the News Guild, had sufficiently shown that the Department of Homeland Security has “a policy of treating the recording of their agents as an unlawful threat that can be responded to with force” and granted class certification to anyone who peacefully films or photographs “immigration enforcement or protests of central California operations.” most of Southern California, including Los Angeles and Orange County.
“As recent events have shown, the ability to record our government at work is critical to accountability and public debate,” plaintiffs’ attorney Matthew Borden said in a written statement. “DHS is trying to monopolize the marketplace of ideas by preventing anyone else from reporting on the violent treatment of community members. Journalists and civilians with phones are a critical check against totalitarianism.”
Protests erupted across the South after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, began a series of immigration sweeps the raids in June 2025, often picking up anyone who looked Latino in Home Depot parking lots, bus stops, and car washes. In response to the protests, President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, which, along with the Los Angeles Police Department, launched a crackdown on civil disobedience. In many cases, journalists were caught after the strike.
The LA Press Club, the NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America and individual journalists, legal observers and protesters filed a class action lawsuit, citing an LA Public Press freelance reporter who was hit in the head with a tear gas canister and another freelancer who was shot in the head with a rubber bullet. Tall photojournalist Ted Soqui was shot with a rubber mallet and a pepper ball. Lexis-Olivier Ray, a staff writer for LA Taco, an alternative news website, was also shot with pepper balls.
Judge Vera initially denied a motion for a temporary restraining order, but months later agreed to issue a preliminary injunction, barring federal agents from using excessive and indiscriminate force against journalists and peaceful protesters, writing, “As tensions escalate, officers from the Federal Protective Services, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and illegal mobs search for guns indiscriminately and with surprising ferocity.”
Fed appealcalling the order overly broad and “unenforceable in many different ways.” A three-judge panel agreed that the order was overly broad and ordered Vera to narrow its scope. Vera has heard arguments about how to do this, but has not yet decided on the matter.
In his decision granting class certification, Vera wrote that the plaintiffs had sufficiently shown “the existence of a policy within DHS that treats the simple public record of its agents as a threat that could be viewed as criminal in nature and responded to with force at the scene.” It also found that the plaintiffs had shown that all class members had suffered similar injuries as a result of the same conduct.
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