Ruling comes after agents fired teargas, pepper balls and rubber bullets into peaceful protest that included children
A federal judge has temporarily restricted immigration officers from shooting teargas or projectile munitions at protesters outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon, which has been the site of repeated demonstrations since last year that the Trump administration has increasingly met with force.
The US district judge Michael Simon’s ruling comes after a weekend in which immigration agents at the ICE building fired teargas, pepper balls and rubber bullets into a crowd of thousands of protesters that included children. Local officials had described the protest as peaceful prior to the excessive force.
“Defendants’ violence is in no way isolated,” the order reads, adding that “the culture of the agency and its employees is to celebrate violent responses over fair and diplomatic ones”.
The order bars federal officers from using chemical or projectile munitions unless the person targeted poses an imminent threat of physical harm. Simon also limited federal officers from firing munitions at the head, neck or torso “unless the officer is legally justified in using deadly force against that person”.
