The ACLU ICE tire slashing complaint landed on Thursday, October 29, 2026, with video that is hard to watch without asking what law enforcement was doing: a masked federal immigration agent, filmed at a traffic light in Hillsboro, Oregon, walks up to a civilian car, stabs one of its rear tires with a knife, walks back to his vehicle, and then gets out and stabs the same tire a second time before driving away without speaking to the people inside. The American Civil Liberties Union says the couple in the car — Portland-area residents identified only as A.P. and M.P. — had done nothing but observe and film Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a public parking lot, and it is demanding that the Department of Homeland Security investigate, preserve the evidence and discipline the agents involved.
According to the complaint, the married couple were driving in Hillsboro on the morning of October 7 when they spotted an ICE SUV. They followed it to a supermarket parking lot, where two other ICE vehicles were also present. With their windows down, the couple began shouting "This is ICE! This is ICE!" to alert people nearby, while blowing whistles and honking the car's horn — the kind of neighbourhood warning that legal observers have used throughout the recent surge of immigration enforcement in Oregon.
What followed, the complaint says, was an escalation by the agents rather than by the observers. One ICE agent grabbed a shopping cart and began approaching the couple's car, and the couple heard him say something to the effect of, "Let's block them in with the cart." As the couple drove away, several agents chased them on foot. Then, the complaint says, the three ICE vehicles pursued the couple out of the parking lot, "driving aggressively and nearly colliding into" their car. Additional video shows the ICE vehicles swerving in front of the couple's car and unsuccessfully trying to box it in. "None of the ICE vehicles had their flashing lights or sirens on during this entire sequence of events," the complaint states.
The couple cut through an empty parking lot and the chase continued down several more streets before the ICE vehicles finally turned on their emergency lights and sirens. The complaint says the couple kept driving for roughly a minute because they feared pulling over on an empty road with no bystanders around. When they stopped at a traffic light, the video shows a masked agent getting out of his vehicle, walking up to their car, stabbing a rear tire, and returning to his vehicle. The couple's car moved slowly forward into a turn lane and stopped again. The same agent then got out a second time and stabbed the tire again, before returning to his vehicle without attempting to speak to the couple. "All three ICE vehicles turned off their flashing lights and sirens and drove off," the complaint states. No arrest was made, no citation was issued, and, on the ACLU's account, no explanation was offered.
The incident took place amid a surge of ICE activity across Oregon in early October, a surge that coincided with a DHS social media post promising to target so-called "sanctuary" jurisdictions like Oregon. The state has long limited local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and that posture has made it a flashpoint in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Legal observers — volunteers who watch, record and document enforcement actions in public — have become a familiar presence at arrests, courthouses and workplaces, and their footage has repeatedly become the public record of disputed encounters.
The ACLU says Hillsboro is not an isolated case. Over the past 18 months, the organisation and its affiliates have brought cases in Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis representing observers who were surveilled, intimidated and harassed for filming federal agents in public. Most recently, the ACLU filed a case in Memphis, Tennessee, where residents say a federal task force has terrorised local communities for more than a year and waged what they describe as a relentless retaliation campaign against people filming its agents.
There is also a Portland precedent from last October, cited in reporting on the new complaint: ICE agents in the Portland area busted out the car windows of a U.S. citizen who had been filming them, dragged her out of her vehicle, and detained her for roughly seven hours before releasing her without charges. The ACLU's argument is that these episodes form a pattern, and that the pattern, not just the slashed tire, is what DHS must answer for.
The complaint was filed with the DHS Office of Inspector General and two other DHS oversight offices. It demands that the agents involved be identified, investigated and disciplined, that all relevant evidence be preserved, and that DHS undertake what the ACLU calls "a comprehensive investigation of a disturbing pattern of ICE agents retaliating against individuals who observe, gather information about, and record ICE activity." The ACLU did not name its clients, identifying them only as A.P. and M.P., a husband and wife, and described the vehicle as that of a U.S. citizen.
The legal stakes turn on a right that courts have repeatedly protected. Civil liberties advocates note that every federal appeals court to have considered the issue — nine so far — has firmly upheld the right to record law enforcement in public, and the Supreme Court has unequivocally upheld the First Amendment right to criticise or oppose police activity, whether verbally or through other expressive activity. DHS and immigration officers have repeatedly accused videographers and legal observers of obstruction and "doxxing," but the ACLU's position is that filming agents in a public place, shouting a warning to neighbours and honking a horn are protected activity, not obstruction. The complaint frames the tire slashing as retaliation for exactly that activity: the agents, it says, did not stop the car to make an arrest or issue a citation, but to vandalise it and leave.
"What happened to us is not unique, and that is what is so terrifying," A.P. and M.P. said in a statement shared by the ACLU. "We observe and record public ICE activity in order to shine a light on their abusive behavior and to create a record of what our government is up to. Because of that, they are terrorizing us and anyone else who dares to exercise their First Amendment right to hold our government accountable. We hope that sharing our story will bring attention to their reckless and unconstitutional attacks on our communities."
"The right to record publicly visible law enforcement activity is fundamental to our democracy," said Scarlet Kim, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. "Like many people across the country, our clients have been observing and recording ICE activity in their community. These videos have proven critical to exposing ICE's abuses. If we cannot see and document what our own government is doing on our streets, we cannot hold it accountable for running roughshod over our rights."
"Masked federal officers have no business coming to Oregon to injure or intimidate people," said Kelly Simon, legal director of the ACLU of Oregon. "Oregonians have the right to support their neighbors and communities by filming and documenting government abuses, and Oregonians should not have to fear retaliation when they exercise their right to record law enforcement." USA TODAY reported that it had reached out to DHS and ICE for comment, and other reporting noted that DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As of the complaint's release, no DHS statement addressing the Hillsboro incident had been published.
The case matters for reasons that go beyond one tire in one Oregon suburb. First, it tests whether the right to record the government survives contact with the government's most aggressive enforcement arm: if observers can have their property damaged and be chased through the streets for filming, the practical right to record narrows even while the legal right remains on paper. Second, it arrives five days before the November 3 midterm elections, in a campaign in which immigration enforcement, sanctuary jurisdictions and the conduct of federal agents have all been central issues. Third, it puts DHS's own oversight machinery to a visible test: an administrative complaint, unlike a lawsuit, asks the department to police itself, and the speed and transparency of its answer will be read as a signal about how seriously retaliation claims are taken.
DHS oversight offices will now decide whether to open an investigation, and whether to identify the agents involved. The ACLU has asked that evidence — including the agents' own video, radio traffic, vehicle location data and any body-camera or dashboard footage — be preserved, a step that matters because such records can be overwritten or lost. If investigators find the complaint substantiated, discipline could range from reprimands to more serious sanctions, though administrative complaints do not themselves bring criminal charges. The couple could also pursue civil litigation, as observers have done in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and Memphis.
That on October 7, 2026, after a Portland-area couple filmed ICE agents in a supermarket parking lot and warned neighbours, three ICE vehicles chased them, and a masked agent stabbed their car's rear tire twice at a traffic light before all three vehicles drove off.
The ACLU identifies them only by initials: a married couple from the Portland area who act as legal observers, recording ICE activity in their community. The complaint describes the vehicle as that of a U.S. citizen.
To investigate the incident, preserve all relevant evidence, identify and discipline the responsible agents, and open a comprehensive investigation into the nationwide pattern of ICE retaliation against people who observe and record enforcement activity.
Civil liberties advocates say yes: nine federal appeals courts have upheld the right to record law enforcement in public, and the Supreme Court has upheld the First Amendment right to criticise police activity. DHS has accused some observers of obstruction and "doxxing," a characterisation the ACLU disputes.
Not immediately. Reporting on October 29 said DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and USA TODAY said it had reached out to DHS and ICE. No agent has been publicly identified or disciplined over the incident so far.
Related coverage on US News Pulse: the Oshkosh teacher deported to Costa Rica after an ICE arrest; ICE arrests surging across California as the election nears; and the DHS data breach that exposed 40,000 employees, including ICE agents.
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