A Portland landlord is threating to sue the federal government because ICE tear gas and other munitions used against demonstrators are creating toxic fumes that penetrate the Portland apartment complex and harm residents, according to reports.
“The repeated use of tear gas, smoke bombs, pepper balls and other tactics outside of the ICE facility has had a direct impact on residents’ well-being, and has created significant hardship for Reach Community Development, a nonprofit organization working to create affordable housing our community urgently needs,” said Reach spokesperson Lauren Schmidt in an email.
The Gray’s Landings apartment sits across the street from the ICE detention facility where protests have been taking place. The protests have been mostly non-violent, but are consistently loud and disruptive for nearby residents. On active nights, federal officers have fired tear gas, smoke bombs and pepper balls at crowds protesting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, sending toxic fumes into Gray’s Landing living and office spaces.
The spokesperson for Reach told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the nonprofit has retained an attorney to look into filing a lawsuit. The aim is to force federal officers to halt their use of tear gas and other munitions that affect the more than 200 low-income tenants of Gray’s Landing, which sits across South Bancroft Street from the ICE building.
In interviews with the Oregonian, residents described damaging health effects from the airborne toxins and a heavy emotional toll from dealing with jackhammer-level noise they can’t completely drown out by turning up their televisions.
Gray’s Landing tenants said they’d experienced coughing fits and sleepless nights, and have the feeling of being constantly watched as drones skim past their windows, helicopters circle overhead and federal officers stand watch on the ICE building’s roof.
Reach has previously said it has spent at least $150,000 on measures that include renting industrial air filters to put in hallways and replacing the building’s HVAC filters to make conditions in the building more tolerable. Concerns over tear gas and safety prompted the nearby Cottonwood School of Civics and Science to relocate to Southwest First Avenue before the start of the school year in August.
