Three U.S. senators called for an overhaul of the policy. Regarding the use of tear gas and pepper spray by federal agents, he cited a ProPublica investigation that found at least 79 children were left screaming, coughing or hurt by these chemicals during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Lawmakers said the findings show further regulations are needed to prevent bystanders, including children, from being injured by chemical weapons. Such weapons are designed to fight insurgents and soldiers, and their compounds are especially toxic to children, who breathe faster than adults for their weight.
“This report makes clear the need for federal legislation to curb the overuse and abuse of tear gas and chemicals,” New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker said in a statement. “We cannot tolerate another child being tear gassed by federal law enforcement officers.”
ProPublica found that the Department of Homeland Security’s policies regarding the use of these weapons are less restrictive than those of some local police departments, many of which have been forced to adopt stronger policies following lawsuits and local laws. There are no uniform standards governing when and how law enforcement can use these weapons.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, told ProPublica that DHS needs to update its policies based on best practices from local police departments. In Minneapolis, for example, police officers can deploy chemical weapons only if the police chief gives permission.
Blumenthal said “this type of use of force requires the approval of someone in a position of authority” and an assessment of potential “collateral damage to children.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, echoed this sentiment. “We need a thorough review to ensure that ICE and Border Patrol adhere to the same rules and safeguards that apply to police departments across the country,” she said in a written statement.
Many of the injured children were at home when tear gas poured in from the streets, where federal agents sprayed chemical agents on crowds of protesters. Other children were sitting in their parents’ car when officers fired pepper spray through the driver’s side window.
Although there is virtually no research into possible long-term effects on children, there is no doubt that the chemical is dangerous. One Chicago-area mother told ProPublica that she has taken her 7-year-old daughter to the emergency room multiple times for coughing and wheezing since tear gas entered her home last fall.
In reference to our reporting, three Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee also sent a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin requesting the department’s training and policy regarding the use of chemical weapons when children are nearby. The letter accused the department of “unnecessarily and callously” harming children and asked for details on whether DHS had studied the weapon’s “harmful effects on children.” The committee’s ranking member, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mich.), signed the letter along with two subcommittee ranking members, Rep. J. Luis Correa of California and Rep. Shri Thanedar of Michigan.
Blumenthal sent another letter to Marin requesting disciplinary records of operatives who used chemical weapons in the presence of children. One of the videos disclosed in the lawsuit shows federal agents in a Chicago suburb throwing tear gas canisters at protesters without apparent provocation, before a police officer says “fuck you” and yells “woo!” The incident occurred just a few blocks from where the 7-year-old boy lives. (It is unclear whether the police officer received any disciplinary action.)
“The video evidence shows that chemicals were used indiscriminately, even in the presence of children,” wrote Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
The extent of the agents’ actions has led some historians to compare current events to the use of tear gas by southern police during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. ProPublica interviewed one civil rights activist, Charles Mauldin. He was 17 years old when he was tear gassed by police and interviewed hundreds of other people who were marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama.
“It’s terrible that people like ICE treat people the same way we were treated 61 years ago,” Mauldin told ProPublica.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called Mauldin’s comparison “disgusting,” adding in a statement that “this type of trash has exposed our nation’s law enforcement officers to systematic acts of violence against them.”
A spokesperson did not respond to ProPublica’s request for an interview with Marin. Todd Lyons, outgoing Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; or David Venturella, Acting Director of ICE.
“DHS does not target children,” the spokesperson wrote, blaming parents for putting their children in dangerous situations. “It is reckless, illegal and highly irresponsible for parents to interfere with law enforcement operations, especially when they have children in tow.”
A ProPublica investigation found that some of the children most affected were innocent bystanders. In Portland, Oregon, federal agents routinely sprayed tear gas at protesters gathered outside an ICE processing center. For several months starting last summer, chemicals seeped into the apartment complex across the street through closed windows and towels that residents futilely shoved under doors to protect themselves. The 12-year-old boy developed hives and a “chronic respiratory illness,” according to his mother’s court declaration. Two girls, ages 7 and 9, hide in a fort built in their father’s closet. Another parent said she taught her 13-year-old son to wear a gas mask indoors.
Their situation was so extreme that the closest study ProPublica found was a 2018 study of Palestinian families in the West Bank, where children complained of rashes and chronic tonsillitis after repeated exposure to tear gas deployed by Israeli security forces.
ProPublica contacted more than 20 members of Congress for answers to the findings. There are no Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson. Senator Rand Paul, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Rep. Andrew Garbarino, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, also responded to a request for comment.
Many Democratic lawmakers in response condemned the actions of DHS officials and pointed to the failure of past efforts to hold the department accountable for its actions, including holding public hearings and sending dozens of oversight letters.
ProPublica previously reported on a Democratic-led forum in March that spotlighted child victims of immigration enforcement, including citizens believed to have been wrongly detained. In mid-May, Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez held a shadow hearing in which she cited a ProPublica study on children victimized by tear gas and pepper spray.
Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Maryland, who attended the hearing, said in an interview that he has been lobbying his colleagues to take up the George Floyd Policing Act, which he said would address many of the issues raised in our review.
Various experts told ProPublica that federal law could help ensure that law enforcement agencies across the country adopt additional restrictions on these weapons, especially when children are at risk.
For example, last month, Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota introduced a bill that would ban the use of excessive force, including chemical weapons, in the presence of children. There are 17 co-sponsors, none of whom are Republicans, and no vote has been taken yet.
Blumenthal also called on his fellow lawmakers to support legislation that would explicitly give citizens the right to sue federal law enforcement officers for violating their civil and constitutional rights.
The Trump administration previously said the new restrictions would hinder immigration officials’ ability to do their jobs.
Federal agents fired pepper spray outside an immigration detention center in Newark on Monday afternoon, hitting Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey, according to the USA Today Network. Kim had visited the facility to support detainees who had begun a hunger strike to protest conditions inside the facility. He told reporters he was pepper sprayed after trying to defuse tensions between immigration officials and protesters, and his throat still felt sore late that night. It is unclear whether any children were affected by chemical weapons.
DHS said officers responded to protesters who were blocking law enforcement from leaving the ICE facility.
“No one was directly hit by the Pepper Ball projectile,” DHS wrote in a post to X. “Our law enforcement agencies, in accordance with their training, used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property.”
In response to ProPublica’s questions about the lawmakers’ reform demands, a DHS spokesperson said in a written statement that officers are trained to use “the least amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations.”
“DHS is authorized to do what is appropriate and necessary in each situation to diffuse violence against personnel in the most appropriate manner possible,” the statement said.
In a letter sent last week, Blumenthal gave the agency a June 1 deadline to respond to questions and records requests.
