Federal officers at Portland’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility fired a tear gas canister that shattered the window of a nearby apartment during Saturday’s protest.
Thousands of demonstrators marched to the ICE facility Saturday, and federal officers quickly met them with tear gas, pepper balls, flash bang grenades and rubber bullets after some in the crowd crossed the building’s property line and approached its security gate.
One of those tear gas canisters broke a window on the southwest corner of the Gray’s Landing apartment building, according to Margaret Salazar, CEO of Reach Community Development, which owns the 209-unit low-income building. The third-floor unit was occupied at the time.
“The resident is OK but shaken up,” Salazar told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The window is double-paned so the tear gas did not infiltrate the resident’s home, Salazar said.
“Thank goodness for energy efficient design, right?” she said.
A tear gas canister broke a window on the southwest corner of the Gray’s Landing apartment building on Saturday, Jan. 31, according to Margaret Salazar, CEO of Reach Community Development.Courtesy of Reach Community Development
Officers’ use of tear gas, smoke grenades and other chemical munitions is the subject of a federal lawsuit filed in December by Reach, which has asked a judge to end what it alleged was officers’ “shocking and unconstitutional poisoning” of its residents and their apartments.
Attorneys for Reach submitted a motion Friday in federal court for a preliminary injunction to halt officers’ use of tear gas. The hearing is set for Feb. 13.
“As this brief is being filed, tear gas is once again inside the homes of Plaintiffs and other residents of Gray’s Landing,” who are “just trying to live and breathe in peace,” attorney Daniel F. Jacobson wrote for Reach.
“This needs to end,” Jacobson wrote. “The government’s actions in this case are truly shocking.”
The attorney added that federal officers had previously deployed chemical munitions that hit apartments and the building’s courtyard, and residents have discovered pepper balls, tear gas canisters and other munitions on the premises including on their balconies and in the Gray’s Landing parking garage.
Reach staff will pull together as much evidence as they can about the Saturday event, which Salazar said proves their argument that federal officers need to stop using violent tactics in front of Gray’s Landing.
“This incident crosses a line,” Salazar said. “I think it’s shaken all of us at Reach.”
–Maxine Bernstein contributed to this article.
