Affordable housing residents near Portland ICE building to ask judge to limit feds’ use of tear gas
PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — Several residents of an affordable housing complex in Portland, Oregon, purchased gas masks to wear in their own homes to protect themselves from tear gas fired by federal agents in front of the immigration office building across the street. Others taped their windows or stuffed wet towels under their doors, while children sought safety by sleeping in closets.
Some are preparing to tell their stories to a federal judge Friday as they testify in a lawsuit aimed at limiting federal officers’ use of tear gas. Protests at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement after months of repeated exposure.
The apartment building’s property manager and some tenants filed a lawsuit against the federal government in December, arguing that the use of chemical munitions violated the building’s residents’ rights to life, liberty and property by sickening them, contaminating their apartments and trapping them inside. They asked the court to limit federal agents’ use of such munitions unless they have to respond to an imminent threat.
The defendants, who include heads of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, said police officers used crowd control devices in response to violent protests at the building. place of demonstration for months.
The case is filed by federal officials aggressive crowd control tacticsCities across the country have seen demonstrations against the increase in immigration enforcement spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Tenants at the Gray’s Landing apartment complex experienced difficulty breathing, coughs, headaches and other symptoms after being exposed to chemicals from tear gas, smoke grenades and pepper balls, court filings say. Residents wore gas masks inside their homes, including while sleeping, and capsules hit apartment buildings and were found in the building’s courtyard and parking lot, according to the complaint.
One of the plaintiffs, Susan Dooley, a 72-year-old Air Force veteran who had diabetes and high blood pressure, was sent to the emergency room by a doctor, where she was diagnosed with shortness of breath and mild heart failure, the complaint said. Whitfield Taylor, who placed wet towels around her window air conditioning unit to prevent gas from entering her home, had to take her two daughters, ages 7 and 9, to urgent care for respiratory symptoms. The girls sometimes slept in his closet to feel safe, according to the complaint.
Nearly a third of the affordable housing complex’s 237 residents are 63 or older, according to court filings. Twenty percent of the units are reserved for low-income veterans, and 16% of tenants identify as disabled.
The plaintiffs filed an updated request for an injunction limiting federal officers’ use of tear gas late last month after the agents. sprayed tear gas into the crowd The number of demonstrators, including young children, described by local authorities as peaceful.
“As this briefing is being prepared, Plaintiffs and other residents of Gray’s Landing are once again experiencing tear gas in their homes,” the filing states. “Once again, despite facing no violence or imminent threat, Defendants indiscriminately fired tear gas into the streets adjacent to the Gray’s Landing apartment complex and infiltrated Plaintiffs’ homes where they were simply trying to live and breathe in peace. This needs to end.”
The government says federal officers have occasionally used crowd control devices in response to crowds that were “violent, obstructive or trespassing” or did not comply with dispersal orders.
He also challenged claims that tenants’ constitutional rights were violated, stating that under such a claim, “federal and state law enforcement would be violating the Constitution when they inadvertently introduce airborne crowd control devices into someone’s home or business, even if the use of such devices is perfectly legal.”
The hearing follows a federal judge’s hearing in a separate Oregon case agents’ use of tear gas was temporarily restricted During protests in the building. The temporary restraining order in this case, filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists, is set to expire next week.
