Lexis-Olivier Ray, an investigative reporter with L.A. Taco, was peppered with crowd-control munitions and threatened with arrest at a protest against immigration raids in Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 31, 2026.
The demonstration was held a day after nationwide protests and also followed similar protests in Minnesota, where federal officers had shot and killed two U.S. citizens. In LA, sweeping immigration enforcement has continued since June.
Ray — who had already been shoved by police and tear-gassed by federal officers at a protest the day before — told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived Jan. 31 at the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants were being held, because a pop punk band was supposed to play a set there.
Armed officers with Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol were lined up, ordering people to back away from the federal building. At one point, an individual attending the protest threw a firework behind the federal agents, prompting the officers to fire crowd-control munitions and tear gas.
“That’s around the time when at least one agent turns to me and fires a bunch of pepper balls at my lower right leg and my hip,” said Ray, who was filming and wearing visible press markings. “That definitely felt targeted.”
Later, the LA Police Department, pushing demonstrators away from the federal building, formed a kettle, a tactic used to surround and control a crowd.
In a series of Instagram video posts from that day, Ray is seen approaching a line of officers in the kettle, telling them that he’s allowed to cross. An officer refuses to let him pass, telling him to “Back up,” and directing him elsewhere to speak with a police supervisor.
In another video, an officer on a megaphone is heard announcing they were arresting those in the kettle for failure to disperse.
“Sir, press,” said Ray, who is again told to back up.
In a following video, Ray approaches an officer and reminds him that the press is exempt from dispersal orders under California law. He is told a supervisor would make that determination.
Later, a different officer tells him that he would be detained, saying in one video, “You’re not exempt, all right?”
Ray and another journalist were stuck in the kettle for more than a half hour before finally being let through, adding, “They should have very quickly been able to identify me as press and get me out of there.”
Once outside the kettle, Ray continued documenting the officers making arrests. At one point, a police spokeswoman ordered him not to cross a certain line while reporting.
“It felt like the Metropolitan Division officers, in particular, really wanted to detain me, or journalists, or at the very least scare the shit out of us,” he told the Tracker. “In that regard, it felt targeted and intentional.”
The actions of LAPD and DHS officers on both days appeared to violate a state law prohibiting officers from using violent protest policing tactics with members of the press, which courts reinforced with preliminary injunctions issued to both agencies last year.
Neither agency responded to a request for comment. In social media posts on X after the protest, the LAPD said it had declared an unlawful assembly and was making arrests of people who did not leave the area. It did not address the detainment of members of the press.
In a Jan. 31 post on his social media platform, President Donald Trump wrote that federal agents would participate in policing protests only if requested, but that he had instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol “to be very forceful in this protection of Federal Government Property.”
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.