The Trump administration has been sued over claims federal agents harmed low-income seniors, veterans, and families by firing chemical agents near an apartment building as part of an attempt by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to impress conservative influencers.
Since the summer, the use of force by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has escalated around a federal facility in Portland, Oregon, with the deployment of tear gas, pepper balls, and chaotic tactics that even hit peaceful crowds. A new lawsuit alleges that their use has affected residents living near the facility.
The complaint, filed Dec. 5 by REACH Community Development and nine residents of Gray’s Landing in Portland, Oregon, argues that, for the past six months, federal agents have “indiscriminately deploy[ed tear gas], smoke grenades, pepper balls, and other chemical agents in mass volume,” with fumes that “seep through windows and vents, accumulate in hallways and bedrooms, and bind to walls, carpets, clothing, furniture, and children’s toys.”
It details yellow gas clouds, persistent coughs, burning eyes and throats, dizziness, and headaches.
Some deployments were “not to address any real danger,” according to the complaint, but to ”put on a show for conservative ‘influencers’” who had been invited by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and DHS to the ICE facility “to film the protests for propaganda purposes.”
They have included Benny Johnson, a pro-Trump social media personality from Florida, with 4 million X followers, and Trump ally Nick Sortor, who were mocked in October after filming Noem on the roof of the facility looking down at what Johnson called an “army of antifa,” but was actually just two small groups of peaceful protesters—and a man in a chicken suit.
The deployment of munitions is said to have left children at Gray’s Landing living in fear, led some people living there to fall ill, while military veterans and domestic violence survivors living with PTSD said that “each gassing…serves as a new triggering event,” the filing says.
“The sudden, loud explosions next to their apartments, and plumes of gas and other chemical agents, provoke horrifying PTSD reactions. Other residents have experienced extreme anxiety and panic attacks from the gases invading their homes,” it reads.
The complaint alleges that the actions by federal agents are also unconstitutional: “It should go without saying that, under our Constitution, the federal government may not knowingly release poison gas into the homes of citizens who are simply trying to go about their lives.”
Yet the suit alleges that federal agents “shoot their munitions directly toward Gray’s Landing,” knowing that the building “is in the line of fire and that its residents will be exposed,” although they “do not care.”
When a building representative confronted agents about the impact on residents, the suit claims, “the officers laughed and told her that they only use gases that are ‘environmentally friendly.’” It also alleges officers fired “pepper bullets into the backs of retreating protesters.”
One resident, Jane Doe, a domestic abuse survivor “once…shot in the head at point-blank range by her abuser,” alleges the blasts and fumes “trigger a horrific panic.” Whitfield Taylor lives about 100 feet from the ICE facility with his daughters, ages 7 and 9, and the suit says the girls “sometimes sleep in their father’s closet to feel some sense of safety.”
Air Force veteran Susan Dooley, 72, who served during the Vietnam War, alleges repeated exposures in her west-facing unit. Resident Mindy King, who lives with her 13-year-old son, recorded tear-gas deployments from her apartment of ten years.
The ordinary rituals of home life—“opening a window, stepping onto a balcony, letting a child sleep in her own bed”—have become “sources of danger and anxiety,” the suit says.
The filing seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to halt what it calls the government’s “shocking and unconstitutional poisoning.”
The lawsuit also notes broader collateral fallout. The Cottonwood School of Civics and Science, located across the street, was, it says, “forced to permanently relocate over the summer” because chemical munitions made the area unsafe.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
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