A federal judge in Oregon on Friday limited federal officers’ use of tear gas during protests at a Portland federal immigration building, as part of a lawsuit filed by an adjacent affordable housing complex following months of repeated exposure.
U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio issued the preliminary injunction after a hearing last month in which the complex’s residents described physical and psychological symptoms ranging from difficulty breathing, coughing, burning eyes and hives to anxiety and panic attacks. Some also testified about wearing gas masks in their own homes.
The case comes amid growing concern over federal officers using aggressive crowd-control tactics, as cities across the country have seen demonstrations against the immigration enforcement surge spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s administration.
In her opinion, Baggio said the case was not about the rights of protesters, but rather about allegations from the residents of the Gray’s Landing apartment building that federal officers’ use of chemical munitions during protests “has been so excessive — so enveloping — that it violates Plaintiffs’ rights.”
“The Court recognizes a preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy, but this is an extraordinary case,” she wrote.
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. They asked the court to limit federal agents’ use of such munitions unless needed to respond to an imminent threat.
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.
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.
