ICE Agent Accused of Slashing Car Tyre After Portland Residents Filmed Officers, ACLU Releases Video

Two Portland-area residents have accused an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent of slashing their car tyre after they filmed federal officers in Oregon, with newly released footage appearing to capture the incident.

The allegations have prompted a formal complaint to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), demanding an investigation into what the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) describes as part of a wider pattern of retaliation against people recording immigration enforcement operations.

ICE Agents Allegedly Followed Residents After Filming

The incident occurred on 7 October 2026 in Hillsboro, a suburb of Portland, amid increased ICE activity across Oregon. According to an administrative complaint filed by the two residents, identified as A.P. and M.P., they had been observing and recording ICE agents in a parking lot when officers allegedly began following them.

The residents claim the agents used their vehicles to tail and box them in before an agent slashed one of their car tyres. The ACLU released video of the alleged tyre-slashing incident alongside its announcement of the complaint. The organisation is representing the residents in their demand for accountability from federal authorities.

The complaint comes amid heightened tensions over immigration enforcement in Oregon, which coincided with a DHS social media post promising to target so-called 'sanctuary' jurisdictions such as the state.

ACLU Warns of Nationwide ICE Retaliation

The ACLU said the alleged encounter in Hillsboro reflects a broader pattern of intimidation targeting people who monitor and record federal agents carrying out their duties in public.

Over the past 18 months, the organisation and its affiliates have brought several cases involving observers who reported being surveilled, threatened, harassed or otherwise intimidated for filming ICE operations.

Those cases include incidents in Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis. The ACLU also recently filed a lawsuit in Memphis, Tennessee, where observers have described an alleged campaign of retaliation involving a federal task force operating in local communities.

The organisation said reported tactics against observers across the country have included threats, traffic stops without reasonable suspicion, surveillance of their homes, physical assaults and arrests.

Portland Residents Say ICE Intimidates Observers

The two residents said they wanted to document federal activity in their community and make government conduct visible to the public.

'What happened to us is not unique, and that is what is so terrifying,' A.P. and M.P. said in a statement released by the ACLU. They added that they record public ICE activity to expose alleged abuses and create a record of what government agents are doing.

The residents also expressed concern that intimidation could discourage others from exercising their First Amendment rights to observe and record law enforcement activity.

ACLU Defends Right To Record ICE Agents

Scarlet Kim, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said recording publicly visible law enforcement activity was fundamental to democratic accountability. Kim argued that videos captured by members of the public had played an important role in exposing alleged ICE 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,' Kim said.

Kelly Simon, legal director of the ACLU of Oregon, also criticised the alleged treatment of observers, saying Oregonians should not fear retaliation for documenting federal officers.

ACLU Demands DHS Investigation Into ICE

The administrative complaint calls on DHS to investigate the 7 October incident, preserve all relevant evidence and discipline the agents responsible if misconduct is established. It also demands a comprehensive investigation into what the ACLU describes as a nationwide pattern of ICE retaliation against people observing and recording federal operations.

Simon said masked federal officers had no business entering Oregon to injure or intimidate members of the public.

The complaint adds to growing legal challenges brought by the ACLU over the treatment of people documenting immigration enforcement activity across the United States.