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PORTLAND, Ore. — In a significant development, a federal judge in Oregon has imposed restrictions on the use of tear gas by federal officers at a Portland federal immigration facility. This decision stems from a lawsuit initiated by a nearby affordable housing complex, which has endured prolonged exposure to tear gas during protests.
U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio issued a preliminary injunction following testimonies from the complex’s residents last month. The residents recounted a range of physical and mental health issues, including breathing difficulties, persistent coughing, eye irritation, skin rashes, anxiety, and panic attacks. Some even resorted to wearing gas masks indoors for protection.
This legal action highlights growing national concerns over the use of forceful crowd-control measures by federal officers, as numerous cities witness protests against the intensified immigration enforcement policies of former President Donald Trump’s administration.
Judge Baggio clarified that the case primarily focuses on the grievances of the Gray’s Landing apartment residents, who argue that federal officers’ extensive deployment of chemical agents during protests has infringed upon their rights.
“While a preliminary injunction is a rare judicial action, the circumstances of this case are equally exceptional,” Baggio noted in her written opinion.
Her order restricts agents from using chemical munitions in quantities likely to reach Gray’s Landing, which is catty-corner from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, unless needed to respond to an imminent threat to life.
A federal judge in a separate Oregon lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists, previously issued a temporary restraining order limiting agents’ use of tear gas during protests at the building and is also considering whether to grant a preliminary injunction in that case.
The property manager of the apartment building and several tenants filed the suit against the federal government in December, arguing that the use of chemical munitions has violated residents’ rights to life, liberty and property by sickening them, contaminating their apartments and confining them inside.
“This decision protects basic health and safety and the right to live in one’s home without fear of chemical weapons being used by the government,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, a legal nonprofit representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement Friday. “Residents should not be harmed simply because they live next to a site of public protest.”
The defendants, which include ICE and the Department of Homeland Security and their respective heads, say officers have deployed crowd-control devices in response to violent protests at Portland’s ICE facility, which has been the site of demonstrations for months.
ICE and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling.
The plaintiffs filed an updated request for a preliminary injunction in late January, after agents launched gas at a crowd of demonstrators including young children that local officials described as peaceful.
Of the affordable housing complex’s 237 residents, nearly a third are age 63 or older, according to court filings. Twenty percent of units are reserved for low-income veterans and 16% of tenants identify as disabled.
The government said in court filings that federal officers have at times used crowd control devices in response to crowds that are “violent, obstructive or trespassing” or do not comply with dispersal orders.
It has also pushed back against the claims of tenants’ constitutional rights being violated, saying that under such an argument, “federal and state law enforcement officers would violate the Constitution whenever they deploy airborne crowd-control devices that inadvertently drift into someone’s home or business, even if the use of such devices is otherwise entirely lawful.”
The preliminary injunction will remain in effect as the lawsuit proceeds.