Federal immigration officers are using chemical irritants to disperse protesters in ways that violate American policing norms and are testing the boundaries of use-of-force laws, video footage from Chicago shows, in some cases hitting demonstrators directly with the munitions.

Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have deployed tear gas in cities around the country, but its use has been especially prevalent in Chicago, where the Trump administration launched “Operation Midway Blitz” in September as part of the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

The use of tear gas has persisted in recent days despite a court order forbidding officers from using chemical agents against demonstrators and journalists unless they pose a safety threat. Last week, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official leading the Chicago operation, was videotaped throwing a tear-gas canister into a crowd. In another incident, immigration officers deployed tear gas as families were walking to a Halloween parade.

“Generally, these kinds of crowd-control devices are reserved for truly dangerous situations,” said Kevin Fee, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which is part of a legal coalition representing journalists and protesters in a lawsuit. “I cannot think of a good parallel for what the administration is doing right now.”

Department of Homeland Security officials argue chemical agents are a necessary tool to protect law enforcement and prevent clashes with protesters from escalating. A spokeswoman for the agency said Bovino had been struck in the head with a rock and that someone had also fired fireworks toward officers.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Bovino said officers “want a peaceful resolution” and are using “less lethal” devices like chemical agents to “create peace and to save lives.” The alternative, he said, is far darker. “Say God himself came down and took ’em all away,” he said, referring to the irritants. Officers would be left with “lethal devices.”

“Would you like that?” he asked. “I wouldn’t.”

The frequent use of chemical agents raises questions about training and tactics being used by ICE officers and Border Patrol agents. The latter are now heavily involved in immigration arrests far from the U.S.-Mexico border; most federal agents have scant experience dealing with protesters in urban areas. DHS says assaults against officers have risen significantly.

In Chicago, residents and local journalists have captured footage showing clouds of tear gas drifting toward homes, storefronts and schools. Some residents said the tear gas has aggravated their asthma. Others said they’ve experienced emotional distress.

Jennifer Crespo, who was at a protest as a legal observer when federal agents deployed tear gas, said she vomited from the exposure.

“It was like the world had just been flipped upside down,” she said. “Like somebody just takes the rug out from underneath you. It was surreal. I didn’t recognize my city.”

‘Virgin territory’

Chemical irritants like tear gas have been deployed by law enforcement officers to control crowds for decades, but experts said their use to disperse spontaneous protests is new.

Police deployed tear gas in Chicago and elsewhere during the 2020 protests against police brutality. But officers generally warned demonstrators that they were going to be exposed to fumes if they didn’t leave. They also formed lines and secured their flanks to make sure they wouldn’t be surrounded.

The protests emerging in Chicago today tend to be far more unpredictable. Residents and activists find out that ICE and Border Patrol are in their neighborhood and try to get as close as possible. Some start filming. Others yell aggressively. The protesters congregate from any and all directions.

In response, federal agents sometimes disperse tear gas and pepper balls with little or no warning.

“You’re sort of seeing more of a tactical use of tear gas rather than strategic use,” said Ian T. Adams, a former police officer and current assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina.

Immigration officers in Chicago and other cities have been recorded using both pepper balls — small projectiles fired from a gun that upon contact release a pepper mist — and canisters of CS gas, also known as tear gas. Nations including the United States that are signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention are barred from using tear gas during international war.

Both chemicals can irritate the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. The effects typically last a few minutes and can provoke coughing and shortness of breath. Studies have found direct or repeat exposure can aggravate conditions like asthma and put people at risk of developing chronic bronchitis. The canister itself can be dangerous and even fatal if someone is hit, and passersby can be injured by the fumes.

“The nature of tear gas is that you can’t target it toward a single rioter,” said Rohini Haar, an ER doctor and epidemiology professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “You’re going to hit people with respiratory vulnerabilities or asthma, and bystanders who have nothing to do with it.”

Federal law prohibits law enforcement from using excessive force, but U.S. courts are not in lockstep when it comes to interpreting what that means, particularly as police employ an ever-evolving array of less-lethal weapons.

The lawsuit filed by journalists and protesters alleges immigration officers are violating First and Fourth amendment rights protecting free expression, and prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures. DHS officials have argued that some demonstrators are committing crimes by assaulting, resisting or obstructing officers from executing their responsibilities.

Many American police lack adequate training in how to respond to spontaneous urban protests, said Thor Eells, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association. He characterized the use of chemical irritants by immigration officers as “unorthodox” and questioned what training they have received. He also noted that courts have not yet established precedent on acceptable uses in circumstances like those immigration agents are encountering.

“It’s virgin territory,” Eells said. “This is a new, very kinetic and dynamic environment that these federal agents are working in.”

A DHS spokesperson declined to describe what training — if any — agents are receiving to handle unexpected protests. But Jason Owens, a former chief of Border Patrol, said agents are taught about tear gas and its effects as part of their basic training. He said Border Patrol mainly uses chemical agents when a crowd is “not complying with the lawful commands of the law enforcement officers” and that images of agents in gas masks show they have gotten training.

“You have to be trained how to don and doff those things. You have to be trained how to clear it and how to deal with contamination procedure in the heat of the moment,” he said. “Those are all things that are taught and reinforced, and the same is true for those munitions.”

But some former DHS officials also expressed concern that effectively managing an unruly crowd in a city goes beyond the mission of immigration agents — in particular for Border Patrol’s forces, who are more accustomed to encountering cartels than protesters.

“They come from an environment where much more aggressive law enforcement tactics are generally appropriate due to the threats they face doing Border Patrol work in the middle of the southwest desert — very isolated areas where you frequently encounter drug smugglers,” said John Sandweg, former acting ICE director under President Barack Obama. “But those tactics aren’t appropriate when you bring them up to civil immigration enforcement in a city like Chicago.”

Questionable uses

Immigration officers began deploying tear gas and pepper balls in Chicago shortly after Operation Midway Blitz began. Protesters largely congregated in the initial weeks at the Broadview ICE facility where migrants were being taken. On Sept. 19, tensions between ICE officers and demonstrators turned violent.

The Rev. David Black, senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, arrived that Friday at Broadview in his black clerical garb intent on ministering alongside the protesters. A now viral video captured him standing outside a fence when a law enforcement agent fired from a rooftop and hit him in the head.

Black said he was shot “at least seven times” with pepper balls that day. Immediately after, ICE officers came out of the facility and began macing people, he said. A bystander helped him remove his contact lenses. He said the crowd received no warning before chemical agents were deployed.

“They didn’t even raise their rifles. They were shooting from the hip,” he said. “We heard them laughing as they did it, too.”

DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin later said that “agitators” had been blocking an ICE vehicle from leaving and that law enforcement “verbally warned” that they would use force if they did not move. The video of Black getting hit does not show a vehicle.

In the week that followed, ICE officers used chemical irritants against protesters, journalists and religious leaders outside Broadview on at least four separate days, according to local news reports and video shared on social media. One journalist said she was shot in the face with a pepper ball after taking a photo of a federal officer. Two other reporters said they were also hit, and one described seeing an officer hurl a tear-gas canister at a photojournalist.

By early October, officers were using tear gas in other parts of the city as well.

A federal officer in a mask threw a tear-gas canister on Oct. 3 near Rico Fresh Market after a crowd assembled in Logan Square. The next day, federal agents in Brighton Park shot a woman they accused of following ICE and boxing in their vehicle. Several dozen people protested in response, and witnesses said officers fired tear gas with no warning. The Chicago Police Department said 27 of its officers were affected by the fumes.

Crespo, who was at the Brighton Park protest, said that the crowd was calm before officers deployed tear gas and that they were not blocking the officers’ path.

“Were people riled up and upset and angry and yelling? Yes,” she said. “But when I was there, I didn’t see any protesters throw anything at federal agents.”

Crespo, who works for Illinois’ Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission, which investigates accusations of coerced police confessions, said her nostrils stayed swollen for a week after the incident, and she’s had to use her partner’s asthma inhaler to remedy shortness of breath. She believes the officers had alternatives, but they showed no desire to coordinate with legal observers who were attempting to corral protesters.

On Oct. 9, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis issued a temporary restraining order blocking DHS agents from using riot control weapons, including tear gas, on journalists, protesters and religious practitioners who do not pose an immediate threat. The temporary restraining order also required federal agents to give “at least two separate warnings when feasible” at an appropriate sound level before using a riot control weapon.

Fee, of the ACLU, said that the temporary restraining order has worked in Broadview, where there are no longer agents “stationed on the roof shooting tear gas and pepper balls at clergy and protesters.” But video footage shows that federal agents have continued to deploy chemical irritants in other areas of the city.

Enrique Bahena was on his way to work when he biked to the front of a protest next to a shopping mall in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood last week. It was at least the fifth demonstration the 28-year-old had participated in since the enforcement operation began. Bahena said he has relatives in danger of arrest and wants to stand up for his family and neighborhood.

Agents motioned for the crowd to get out of the way of law enforcement vehicles trying to leave. Protesters and parked vehicles were blocking their exit. Bahena said he was backing up when an agent fired a pepper ball at his neck. He captured the shooting on his Meta glasses.

“I didn’t say anything or do anything,” Bahena said. “Everyone was talking s--- to them. But I was the only one not saying anything.”

Creating ‘a hazard’

What federal immigration officers are allowed to do in Chicago could shape how tear gas and pepper balls are used in other cities where they launch operations.

Ellis questioned Bovino on Tuesday and warned him that agents appear to be violating her temporary restraining order barring them from using chemical munitions on protesters or journalists who do not pose a threat.

“They don’t have to like what you’re doing, and that’s okay. That’s what democracy is,” Ellis told him. “They can say they don’t like what you’re doing: they don’t like how you’re enforcing the laws — that they wish you would leave Chicago and take the agents with you. They can say that, and that’s fine. But they can’t get tear-gassed for it.”

Edward Maguire, a criminology and criminal justice professor at Arizona State University, reviewed footage for The Post of federal agents at the ICE facility in Broadview. He said in an email that it was difficult to draw conclusions because the video doesn’t show what happened before they deployed tear gas. He did not hear any announcement that tear gas was about to be used, but there are carve-outs in the law and within the temporary restraining order that allow for the use of chemical agents even without a warning.

Still, Maguire pointed to several red flags. The video shows an officer shoving an individual without giving them time to back up. Officers deployed tear gas onto a roadway, which Maguire said created “a hazard for drivers.” And he said the officers were also “pushing protesters into a live intersection,” creating another dangerous situation.

“All of these actions are inconsistent with effective protest management,” Maguire wrote.

Intentionally hitting someone in the head with a pepper ball from close range may be considered legal if an officer believes that person “poses a risk of causing serious bodily injury and or death to you, the officer, and or others in the immediate vicinity,” said Eells, of the National Tactical Officers Association. Pepper balls are designed to deliver a chemical irritant, but they are also considered “specialty impact munitions” capable of serious injury if shot at someone’s head.

Black said it is difficult to watch the video from that day in Broadview.

“I still have respiratory problems from the amount of chemicals that were deployed just on me,” he said. “And I’m not alone.”

Arelis R. Hernández, Kim Bellware and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.