The Trump administration is appealing a recent order by a federal judge in Oregon that restricts the use of tear gas and other chemical munitions near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.
U.S. Department of Justice attorneys submitted a notice of appeal mid-afternoon Monday, a boilerplate document signaling they will lodge a formal appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
The appeal seeks to undo a March 6 preliminary injunction from U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio. Baggio, in her decision, agreed to limit crowd-control agents in the South Waterfront neighborhood. Tenants of an apartment building kitty-corner from the ICE building say tear gas, pepper balls and other munitions are violating their right to bodily integrity.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility is reflected in the windows of Gray’s Landing, an affordable housing apartment building, which sits directly across the street from in Portland, Ore., on March 16, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
A separate order from U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon, issued March 9, sided with demonstrators who said they were being subjected to tear gas to quell their freedom of speech. This order also restricts the use of crowd control weapons.
The specifics of the Justice Department’s appeal weren’t immediately clear. The attorneys listed on the notice did not immediately respond to requests to comment. The notice of appeal stated only that they “hereby appeal” the decision.
But attorneys for the federal government have already laid out some of their disagreements in court. Attorney Samuel Holt said during a February hearing that tear gas clouds are the result of demonstrators’ actions, not federal law enforcement.
They also brushed off as “novel” the legal argument that tear gas spreading into neighbors’ homes amounted to a violation of bodily integrity. That argument is more common in cases where cities have ignored dangerous levels of lead in public drinking water.
Prior to Baggio’s ruling, Holt said that siding with the neighbors would be tacitly calling the tear gas use “akin to the Flint water crisis.” Such a ruling would be “an astounding holding,” Holt said.
Attorneys for the neighbors, who live at the Gray’s Landing apartment building, also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. They had previously cheered Baggio’s ruling as showing that the tear gas use had been a “profound abuse of power.”
