What you need to know about the harmful effects of tear gas on children

In city after city, the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has been met with protests and rallies by local community members opposed to the White House’s deportation policies. Federal agents from Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have repeatedly attempted to disperse and repel these crowds using airborne irritants like tear gas and pepper spray, which can cause a range of immediate reactions—ranging from eye pain and shortness of breath to nausea and vomiting—intended to temporarily disable their targets.

DHS has defended its use of these weapons on crowds and said it “does NOT target children,” but after reviewing news reports, lawsuits and footage from agent-worn body cameras, as well as verifying the incidents by interviewing more than 40 victims or witnesses, ProPublica recently identified more than six dozen cases during which children were injured by tear gas and pepper spray.

Here are five things you need to know about how these airborne weapons were used during Trump’s immigration crackdown and how their use particularly harmed children.

Dozens of children were injured by tear gas deployed by immigration officers.

So-called less-lethal weapons like tear gas and pepper spray were developed to inflict intense pain and weaken adult fighters and rioters, but ProPublica has identified 79 children across the country since 2025 who have been injured by these chemicals after their deployment by federal immigration agents. Our figure is almost four times higher than the figure cited in a recent congressional reportbut this is probably still a considerable undercount.

The Department of Homeland Security defended its agents’ use of the chemicals and said the fault lay with the “agitators” in the crowd and the parents who put their children in danger. Many children injured by tear gas and pepper spray were in their cars, at home, or walking to school when they came into contact with the airborne weapons.

Tear gas and pepper spray are particularly toxic to children.

There is no such thing as “tear gas”. It’s a catch-all term for various chemical irritants that exist in fine powder form and trigger a fiery sensation on nerve endings. The chemicals burn your lungs and throat, inflaming your airways until you feel like you’re breathing through a straw, while snot and tears stream down your face. They can cause vomiting, rashes, and coughing that last for weeks. Pepper spray is made from compounds found in hot peppers and causes similar effects.

Because children breathe more quickly and can inhale more contaminated air than adults relative to their body weight, these weapons are especially dangerous for young people. Children are also more vulnerable because they have narrower airways and are closer to the ground, where tear gas tends to accumulate after being deployed. The Trump administration’s use of tear gas has been so extraordinary that no one yet knows what long-term damage can result from children who have come into contact with these chemicals — some multiple times.

The courts ruled that the officers’ use of tear gas was excessive, but that their power was limited.

In November 2025, a federal judge in Illinois ruled that ICE and CBP agents deployed these chemicals “without justification, often without warning” against people who did not pose a physical threat. This constitutes an unlawful use of excessive force, the judge said, ordering the agencies to stop. But its injunction only covered the areas mentioned in the complaint. Officers were free to continue using the weapons elsewhere.

After federal agents in Portland, Oregon, responded to a rally on January 31 by firing various less-lethal grenades into the crowd — including Triple Chaser grenades that each separated into three tear gas canisters; dozens of pepper ball projectiles filled with chemical munitions; and “rubber ball grenades” that released stinging pellets, bright lights and loud sounds — a judge issued a temporary restraining order barring federal agents from using chemical munitions unless they were targeted at someone who posed “an imminent threat of physical harm.”

However, appeals courts later overturned the Illinois judge’s ruling as well as several decisions by Portland judges seeking to ban the use of these weapons.

Once deployed, these weapons are difficult to contain.

Although the Trump administration has defended agent training and said ICE agents are taught to use “the minimum force necessary to resolve dangerous situations,” not only can tear gas canisters thrown into a crowd bounce and roll unpredictably, but the toxic chemicals can travel through the air, sometimes for blocks. In Minneapolis, ProPublica found that tear gas traveled at least 400 meters before entering a McDonald’s.

Derrick Nash and his family live a block and a half east of an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. Even from this distance, they felt the effects inside their homes as police fired tear gas at protesters. Each time the tear gas seeped in, the children – aged 6 to 17 – coughed and their throats often burned. The eldest, a high school student with asthma, was hiding in his room on the second floor. One evening, his face turned red as he coughed uncontrollably and sucked on his inhaler without relief.

“He was struggling, saying, ‘I can’t breathe,'” Nash recalled. The family considered calling an ambulance, but the street was closed.

There are no national standards for the use of tear gas.

Law enforcement policies governing the use of tear gas and pepper spray differ significantly by location, and no federal standards exist. DHS force policy states that officers must use tactics that “minimize the risk of unintentional injury” and must be guided by “respect for human life.” CBP policy states that officers “should not use” pepper spray or “less lethal” chemical munitions against “young children.” ICE policy states that “the presence of other officers, subjects, or bystanders” is a factor in determining whether an officer’s use of force is reasonable.

Contrast that with the politics of tear gas in two cities that faced Trump’s immigration crackdown firsthand. In Portland, police officers considering the use of tear gas must consider their proximity to homes. Meanwhile, Minneapolis prohibits police officers from using chemical munitions for crowd control unless authorized by the police chief, even when officers fear physical harm.

Requiring all law enforcement agencies to adopt uniform policies and training methods would be very helpful, experts told ProPublica. At the same time, they acknowledge that it would likely require Congress to pass a bill requiring federal law enforcement entities to adopt stricter practices and incentivizing local police departments to do the same.

Bills to increase use of force training on such a large scale and legislation targeting DHS and its use of these weapons have so far failed to even pass Congress. Following ProPublica’s investigation, US lawmakers started demanding reforms on the use of these weapons by immigration officials.