Obstruction of a First Amendment-protected activity
Physically obstructing, coercing, or invoking a facially neutral law pretextually to stop someone from exercising any of the First Amendment's five freedoms -- religion, speech, press, assembly, or petition -- including documentation of government action in public. It matters because informal obstruction can suppress protected activity just as effectively as a formal charge, while evading the accountability a formal charge would create.
2026 Events (19)
ICE agents drove vehicles onto sidewalks and struck observers with batons during a Frederick, Maryland raid
On the evening of September 4, 2026, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents drove vehicles onto sidewalks and struck observers with batons in Frederick, Maryland's Taskers Chance neighborhood, where agents had staked out a residence for roughly 40 hours pursuing a man ICE described as a "criminal illegal alien" who fled a vehicle stop. City Council President César Díaz and Vice President Katie Nash, both on scene, said observers formed a human barrier in front of the targeted home but were not violent; no arrests were made and it was not clear anyone inside the home was detained.
Kansas City security officers forcibly removed and handcuffed stadium-subsidy critic at public hearing
On August 18, 2026, Kansas City, Missouri City Hall security officers forcibly removed, pinned to the ground, and handcuffed Darrell Miller, a Kauffman Stadium worker and Missouri Workers Power member, during a City Council Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee hearing on a proposed $600 million public subsidy for a new Royals stadium, after he objected that stadium supporters were allowed to exceed the two-minute public comment limit while critics were held strictly to it. Minutes later the committee voted unanimously to advance the funding ordinances, and police later issued Miller a municipal summons for trespassing and assault.
ICE agents attempted warrantless search of Sacramento immigration law firm, threatened to break in
On August 14, 2026, armed agents identifying as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrived at the Morris Law Group, an immigration law firm in Sacramento's North Natomas neighborhood, and demanded to search the office without producing a judicial warrant. Firm staff turned the agents away; one agent reportedly threatened to return at 3 a.m. and break windows to force entry. U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff announced they would investigate, and DHS confirmed on the record that agents approached the address believing it was a "target address" and departed once they learned it was a law office.
ICE agent drew and pointed gun on bystander distributing immigration-lawyer cards in Virginia parking lot
An ICE agent drew and pointed a firearm at Carolina Molina, a U.S. citizen distributing immigration-lawyer business cards, in a Falls Church, Virginia-area parking lot on August 10, 2026, after she shouted at agents making an arrest nearby. DHS said Molina tried to run over officers with her car and was stopped for that reason; Molina disputes the account and says her own dashcam video contradicts it. She was not arrested and was permitted to leave the scene.
Mississippi prison officials revoked tablet access for 34 death row inmates hours after advocacy story published
On August 7, 2026, Mississippi Department of Corrections officials revoked personal tablet access for all 34 men held in Unit 17, the death row unit at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, within two hours of Mississippi Today publishing a story about the men's advocacy work with the nonprofit Humans Remain. The men said officials cited the unit's restricted status, advocate Liz McCann's use of the devices to contact the men, and the story's publication itself as reasons for the removal; MDOC did not respond to a request for comment on the action or when access might be restored. One month later, the tablets had not been returned.
Tarrant County Judge O'Hare cleared meeting chambers, had ex-Rep. Lon Burnam arrested during his public-comment turn
On August 4, 2026, Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare ordered sheriff's deputies to clear the Commissioners Court chambers in Fort Worth, Texas, after several attendees applauded a speaker who criticized his handling of the meeting on a proposed cut to county polling sites. Roughly 30 minutes later, deputies arrested and booked former state Rep. Lon Burnam on a charge of disrupting a meeting after he continued speaking past his allotted public-comment time and was carried from the chamber. No source reported a weapon or safety threat.
ICE agent pepper-sprayed 72-year-old NYC protester filming enforcement operation in Inwood
On July 30, 2026, an ICE agent pepper-sprayed 72-year-old Linda Wolff at close range in Inwood, Manhattan, after she and other bystanders confronted federal agents having a vehicle towed. Video shows Wolff filming the agents from the sidewalk when the agent sprayed her in the face and, after she noted she had already been maced, responded, "I'm gonna do it again." The Department of Homeland Security defended the action, saying the group had "swarmed" and become "combative," while Wolff says she is pursuing legal action.
Sen. Pete Ricketts invoked Capitol Police on a false pretext to block a reporter's McConnell-health questions
On July 30, 2026, Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) directed U.S. Capitol Police to stop TMZ DC reporter Charlie Cotton from continuing to question him about Sen. Mitch McConnell's health, falsely telling officers that Cotton and a second reporter had not passed through security. Cotton, who had already been credentialed and screened, was stopped from continuing his questions in a Senate hallway as a result. Ricketts later called Cotton to apologize, but a second reporter present, Myles Morrell, said he received no similar apology.
ICE officers invoked Kansas's new Halo Act to block a bystander from recording their Olathe detention operation
On July 11, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers surrounded Lenexa, Kansas resident Shana Leacox as she recorded ICE activity from her car in Olathe, blocking her vehicle in while an officer repeatedly shouted "25 feet, 25 feet" and ordered her to move back under Kansas's new Halo Act. Leacox was not arrested, but the video-recorded encounter shows the facially neutral proximity law -- passed to shield officers from disorderly crowds -- being invoked against a bystander documenting ICE conduct rather than the unrest its sponsors described.
ACLU lawsuit revealed Memphis Safe Task Force retaliated against residents who recorded its agents
On May 13, 2026, the ACLU of Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit, Demster v. Blanche, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee on behalf of four Memphis residents, alleging a sustained pattern of retaliation by the multi-agency Memphis Safe Task Force against people who recorded its immigration and law-enforcement operations. The suit documents an October 2025 arrest and 27-hour jailing of one observer on a charge later dismissed, dozens of arrest threats against another observer under Tennessee's proximity "Halo Law," a traffic ticket that was never filed in court, and agents photographing, tailing, and surveilling observers' homes with unmarked vehicles.
DHS agent's less-lethal projectile destroyed USC student's eye as he documented Los Angeles 'No Kings' protest
On March 28, 2026, a Department of Homeland Security agent fired a less-lethal projectile that struck USC freshman Tucker Collins in his right eye as he documented a "No Kings" protest outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. The projectile destroyed his eyeball and fractured the bones in his eye socket; doctors surgically removed his eye. Collins, who was photographing the protest from behind a barrier and separated from agents, said he heard no warnings before the shot; DHS maintained that seven warnings were issued before crowd-control measures were deployed.
Isle of Wight County, Va., school board members pressured superintendent to suppress anti-ICE student walkout
In the hours before a Feb. 27, 2026 student-led anti-ICE walkout at Smithfield High School in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, School Board Chairman John Collick and board members Brandi Perkins and Mark Wooster pressured Superintendent Theo Cramer to invoke facially neutral conduct and political-activity policies to stop the protest and discipline any participating student or staff member. Collick, invoking his authority as chairman, directed Cramer to "do everything you can do to prevent a walkout" and posted a public Facebook statement urging parents to keep their children from participating. Roughly 150 of Smithfield High's 1,300 students walked out during a non-instructional period without incident, and the school ultimately took no disciplinary action against students or staff.
Federal Protective Service cited immigrant-accompaniment volunteers for loitering in San Diego federal building
On February 26, 2026, Federal Protective Service officers cited volunteer Patrick Corrigan and at least three others for "loitering" in a hallway outside the ICE check-in office at San Diego's Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building, where FAITH program volunteers had accompanied immigrants to check-ins and court hearings for about a year without incident. FPS said the underlying no-loitering regulation dated to November 2025, but volunteers said the enforcement itself was new.
DHS and ICE barred clergy from providing pastoral care to detainees at Minneapolis's Whipple building during Metro Surge
Since Operation Metro Surge began in December 2025, Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis systematically barred clergy from providing pastoral care to immigration detainees, citing shifting "security" and "safety" justifications with no written policy. Documented incidents include Father Christopher Collins being blocked from praying with a detained woman in December 2025 and a reverend being denied entry on Ash Wednesday 2026 while attempting to administer ashes to detainees. The pattern was publicly disclosed in detail on February 23, 2026, when the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ, and Father Collins sued DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, alleging First Amendment and Religious Freedom Restoration Act violations.
Mustang, Oklahoma school district suspended 122 students for ICE-protest walkout, harsher than peer districts' response
On Feb. 5, 2026, Mustang Public Schools in Oklahoma gave in-school suspensions to 122 students who participated in a walkout protesting ICE's mass-deportation enforcement, imposing the harshest of the truancy penalties its discipline manual allows rather than the lighter options the same policy also permits. Gov. Kevin Stitt publicly praised Superintendent Charles Bradley by name for the suspensions, and Republican state lawmakers separately pushed for participating students' teachers to lose their licenses, though state and district review found no evidence school staff organized the protest. Other Oklahoma districts responding to the same wave of ICE-protest walkouts imposed markedly lighter discipline — marking absences or issuing warnings rather than suspension.
CBP agents smashed a livestreaming bystander's car window and detained her for hours at an El Monte, California gas station
On January 30, 2026, federal agents responding to a Customs and Border Protection call surrounded U.S. citizen Maria Santay's car at a gas station in El Monte, California, and broke her window with a hammer while she livestreamed the encounter on Instagram and cried out that she was a citizen. Agents then drove her roughly 40 miles round trip to Santa Ana and back before releasing her from custody that evening; Santay says she was denied a restroom and made to urinate in handcuffs in a parking lot before her release.
CBS News report revealed DOJ immigration court locked out independent observers at Minneapolis's Whipple building
CBS News Minnesota reported on January 14, 2026 that immigration court officials at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis had locked courtroom doors, denied or severely restricted independent observers' access, and stripped names and complete case numbers from case records — a pattern the advocacy group The Advocates for Human Rights said has continued since early 2025. DOJ's own published policy states immigration courts are open to the public except when a judge grants a motion to close a hearing or limit attendance; no such motion or other government justification for the restrictions was reported.
ICE pepper-sprayed and detained two citizen legal observers in Minneapolis; one says HSI tried to recruit him as an informant
On the night of January 11-12, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in south Minneapolis pepper-sprayed the vehicle of two U.S. citizens conducting legal-observer work, Brandon Siguenza and Patricia O'Keefe, then smashed its windows and pulled them out despite their hands being raised -- an incident independently corroborated by neighbor-recorded video, according to a Snopes investigation -- arresting them for an "obstruction" charge that was never formally filed. The pair were held roughly eight hours at the Whipple Federal Building, where Siguenza says a Homeland Security Investigations agent offered him money and help bringing relatives into the country in exchange for the names of protest organizers and undocumented neighbors, which he refused; DHS disputed the account, calling any claim it offered money for information "FALSE" and alleging Siguenza and O'Keefe had themselves committed a felony by "stalking and obstructing ICE law enforcement." Upon release, agents directed Siguenza into a nearby area where tear gas was deployed and he was struck by a projectile.
DHS agents blinded two protesters with crowd-control projectiles at a Santa Ana immigration protest
On the evening of January 9, 2026, federal Department of Homeland Security officers in riot gear fired crowd-control projectiles into a crowd of demonstrators outside a federal immigration building in Santa Ana, California, at a protest held in response to the ICE killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. The projectiles blinded two protesters, 21-year-old Kaden Rummler and 31-year-old Britain Rodriguez, each in one eye; Rummler required six hours of surgery and was left with skull fractures and metal fragments near his carotid artery. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin characterized the demonstrators as "violent rioters" who threw "rocks, bottles and fireworks," a claim video evidence did not support, and did not address either man's injuries or identify the type of projectile fired.
2025 Events (3)
ICE agent Adam Saracco pushed attorney and activist Robert Held to the ground at Brookfield, Illinois gas station
On December 27, 2025, off-duty U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Adam Saracco pushed attorney and immigrant-rights activist Robert Held to the ground at a gas station in Brookfield, Illinois. Held, who is over 60, had followed Saracco's vehicle from an ICE processing facility in Broadview and was filming him when the confrontation occurred.
Broadview, Illinois Mayor Thompson signed executive order imposing 9 a.m.-6 p.m. daily curfew on ICE facility protests
On October 6, 2025, Broadview, Illinois Mayor Katrina Thompson signed Executive Order No. 2025-01, fixing the hours during which people could protest or gather at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility on Beach Street to 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The order, issued amid ongoing clashes between federal agents and demonstrators during "Operation Midway Blitz," cited public-safety concerns and covered both the facility and a nearby designated protest area. The ACLU of Illinois said it would monitor enforcement of the restriction, and a federal lawsuit challenging it followed within weeks.
Federal agents shot legal observer six times with rubber bullets, deployed tear gas during Camarillo cannabis farm raid
On July 10, 2025, federal agents conducting an immigration raid on Glass House Farms, a cannabis facility in Camarillo, California, deployed tear gas and shot Ventura-based attorney Vanessa Valdez six times with rubber bullets despite her identifying herself as a legal observer. Valdez, left unable to see and forced to crawl to escape, has since filed a Federal Tort Claims Act claim seeking compensation for medical costs, lost wages, and emotional trauma. The Department of Homeland Security disputed the account, saying agents used pepper balls rather than rubber bullets, and only after protesters attempted to breach the perimeter.