{"id":200560,"date":"2026-02-15T23:24:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T23:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/broken-bones-burning-eyes-how-trumps-dhs-deploys-less-lethal-weapons-on-protesters-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T23:24:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T23:24:01","slug":"broken-bones-burning-eyes-how-trumps-dhs-deploys-less-lethal-weapons-on-protesters-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/broken-bones-burning-eyes-how-trumps-dhs-deploys-less-lethal-weapons-on-protesters-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Broken bones, burning eyes: How Trump's DHS deploys 'less lethal' weapons on protesters – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Federal immigration officers have repeatedly used force in ways that appear to violate their own policies or general policing guidelines, NBC News found.
They batter bodies with rubber bullets and sear eyes with pepper spray. They lob tear gas and explosive flash-bangs at chanting crowds. They smash car windows. They shove people to the ground. They ram vehicles and point their guns.
Federal officers carrying out President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown in cities across the country have shot 13 people<\/a> with guns. But far more often, they have used harsh tactics to scare or repel those they see as getting in their way. The officers, masked and kitted out with military-grade armor and rifles, have faced down peaceful protesters and people who have threatened, obstructed or attacked them, with methods that are less deadly than guns but still inflict grievous injuries. Hundreds have been hurt, and courts in at least four states<\/a> have found that officers<\/a> used force inappropriately and indiscriminately<\/a>.
NBC News reviewed dozens of incidents since the spring and found that Department of Homeland Security officers have repeatedly deployed \u201cless lethal\u201d weapons in ways that appear to violate their own policies or general policing guidelines, unless they believed their lives were in danger. The review was based on interviews with lawyers, experts and protesters who were injured as well as witness statements, documents from criminal and civil cases and videos taken at protests.
The reporting reveals a cycle of escalation: Heavily armed immigration officers\u2019 open-air raids motivated angry residents to meet officers head-on in the streets. Rather than trying to defuse a tense situation, officers abruptly used physical or chemical force. DHS seemed to apply these tactics with little discretion, whether protests were peaceful or violent, large or small.
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen federal agents so out of control and acting in such a malicious manner,\u201d said Rub\u00e9n Castillo, a former federal prosecutor and federal judge who now leads the Illinois Accountability Commission, a state effort to review allegations of abuse against immigration officers. \u201cThey said they were going after \u2018the worst of the worst,\u2019 then they became the problem.\u201d
This conduct stoked public outrage, triggered backlash from local officials and prompted judges to intervene. For months, the Trump administration charged harder, fighting court orders and promoting an air of ruthlessness<\/a> and impunity<\/a> that signaled to officers they could use whatever means they saw fit. Government officials have defended officers\u2019 actions as necessary and justified, while giving misleading<\/a> or false accounts<\/a> of some clashes<\/a>.
The pervasive use of less lethal tactics, caught on video and ricocheting across social media, began in late spring and summer in California and Oregon, expanded into Chicago in the fall and reached a crescendo in Minneapolis, where officers shot and killed two protesters last month. Public outcry led the DHS to change on-the-ground leadership<\/a>, end the surge in Minneapolis<\/a> and order the wide-scale use of body cameras<\/a>. \u201cI learned that maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch,\u201d Trump told NBC News in early February<\/a>, adding in the same breath, \u201cbut you still have to be tough.\u201d On Friday, two senior DHS officials told NBC News that the agency has no immediate plans for more large-scale immigration operations<\/a> focusing on specific cities. Still, the Trump administration says many newly hired officers have yet to be deployed.
DHS has blamed local politicians and activists for inciting violence, saying attacks on officers have climbed sharply<\/a>, leaving them no option other than to respond in kind. The agency points to the conduct of some protesters, who follow officers with their cars, block them in the street, curse at their faces, blow ear-piercing whistles and clamor outside their hotels at night. At times protests have turned violent<\/a>, with demonstrators throwing bottles, rocks and fireworks, and officers have arrested many people for allegedly trying to assault them<\/a> or hit them with cars<\/a>.
DHS said in a statement that its officers \u201care facing a coordinated campaign of violence against them.\u201d The agency did not answer questions about specific instances of federal officers using less lethal force on protesters. Instead, it highlighted about two dozen alleged attacks on officers. In one, an officer suffered burns and a severe cut<\/a>, requiring 13 stitches, while arresting a man from El Salvador; he was charged with assault and the case is pending. In another, a woman allegedly bit off<\/a> part of an officer\u2019s finger and was charged with assault; the case is pending and her lawyer said it was \u201cmeritless.\u201d In a third, a Guatemalan national<\/a> was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to attempting to choke officers and grabbing one by the genitals.
\u201cDespite these real dangers, our law enforcement shows incredible restraint and prudence in their exercise of force\u201d to protect officers and others, the statement said. DHS said that claims of misconduct are \u201cthoroughly investigated\u201d and acted on \u201cas necessary\u201d but did not provide details.
Some who go to the street to protest or record officers\u2019 conduct know that they risk getting badly hurt.
Leon Virden looked past the danger. He is 73, a lifelong Minneapolis resident who grew so upset after the Jan. 24 killing of Alex Pretti that he drove with his son to the scene. They ended up in a small group of chanting protesters in an alley where they came upon officers he believed were from DHS. One deployed a flash-bang grenade \u2014 which federal officers have used repeatedly at protests \u2014 and it exploded, shattering Virden\u2019s face. Now he sits at home, popping Tylenol and trying not to aggravate his surgically reconstructed jaw.
\u201cI\u2019m really pissed off that these, you can call them anything you want, I call them agents of the Antichrist, that they can come in and do this and get away with it,\u201d Virden said. \u201cI\u2019m pissed off. I hurt a bit, and I just want to see some change.\u201d
The first immigration raids began in Southern California in late May, driven by Trump\u2019s demand to detain 3,000 people a day<\/a>. Masked and heavily armed federal officers, many of whom were accustomed to border patrols or targeted operations that did not typically involve tense encounters with the public, were now sweeping densely populated neighborhoods, scooping up Latino immigrants at bus stops, homeless shelters, Home Depot parking lots, farms, workplaces and homes.
The masked officers, in roving caravans of unmarked cars, drew resistance from angry crowds of immigration advocates and ordinary citizens, and were told by their leaders to meet anyone who harmed them with force.
\u201cArrest as many people that touch you as you want to. Those are the general orders all the way at the top,\u201d the leader of the operation, Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, told agents in Los Angeles, remarks captured by a body camera and later filed in court. \u201cEverybody f——- gets it if they touch you. You hear what I\u2019m saying?\u201d
Bovino said he planned to ship in \u201ctractor-trailer loads\u201d of less lethal weapons. He reminded agents that their actions would likely be caught on camera.
\u201cWhose city is it, chief?\u201d an agent said.
\u201cF—— ours,\u201d Bovino replied. \u201cIt\u2019s our f—— city.\u201d
The use of less lethal weapons \u2014 tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and other projectiles shot from handheld launchers \u2014 is divisive, with some policing experts saying they risk ramping up violence and inflicting needless harm. Many local police departments began to rethink their approach to the weapons following violent confrontations with protesters over the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.
A new set of guidelines, published in 2022 by the policy group Police Executive Research Forum<\/a>, said less lethal weapons should not be used against peaceful demonstrators \u2014 or against those engaged in \u201cminor acts of civil disobedience\u201d like blocking a street. Flash-bangs, developed for hostage rescues and designed to temporarily blind or stun, should not be used in demonstrations, PERF said.
DHS’s policies don\u2019t go that far, but they include some guardrails. The agency requires its divisions<\/a>, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, to train officers in de-escalation techniques and to use force only after a verbal warning, if possible, and a chance to comply. ICE\u2019s use of force policy<\/a> says less lethal force can only be used when no \u201creasonably effective, safe, and feasible alternative\u201d exists and the level of force must be \u201cobjectively reasonable.\u201d CBP\u2019s policy<\/a> is more explicit: It says pepper spray, pepper balls and chemical munitions can only be used on people who are actively resisting officers \u2014 and never on children, pregnant women or drivers, or at someone\u2019s head, neck, groin or spine, unless an officer\u2019s life is in danger.
Officers carrying out Trump\u2019s campaign appear to have repeatedly crossed those lines.
Protesters and journalists covering the hostilities say officers shot them with pepper balls and hit them with tear gas canisters without warning while they chanted and shouted, took photos or were running away. Some were struck in the head or groin, sometimes at close range, and others suffered burns on their arms or legs, according to interviews and court findings.
Officers have been repeatedly filmed shooting pepper spray or powder directly into the faces<\/a> of people who do not appear to be violent or threatening. Officers often shove protesters<\/a> out of the way, sometimes knocking them to the ground. In some instances, children have been hit with tear gas. Two young men were partially blinded<\/a> by rubber bullets in Los Angeles last month; a DHS spokesperson previously minimized one of the men\u2019s injuries<\/a> and said federal officers had been faced with a “mob” of rioters.
\u201cIt\u2019s not every agent. But there is a large majority of them, maybe it\u2019s the new hires or less experienced people, who are on edge, have this power trip, feel above everybody else, and they\u2019re taking it to the extreme,\u201d said Abigail Olmeda, 27, who said she was struck with rubber bullets<\/a>, one of which hit her in the forehead, while holding a sign and shouting at federal officers during a June protest in Santa Ana, California. She said she experienced brain fog for months.
The rush to put thousands of immigration officers in the streets allowed less time to prepare them for the resistance they encountered, which made escalation \u2014 including the use of less lethal weapons \u2014 more likely, said Joseph Lestrange, a former head of public safety and border security for ICE\u2019s investigative arm.
\u201cYou\u2019re setting officers up for failure, to get hurt and to hurt the public,\u201d Lestrange said.
In its statement, DHS said its officers are \u201cheld to the highest professional standard\u201d and given months of training, including how to use \u201cthe minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations\u201d as well as de-escalation techniques.
DHS said every time an officer uses force it must be reported and reviewed, and that any claim of misconduct is investigated. But the agency did not respond to a request to share how many use of force reports have been filed in the past year, how many investigations of excessive force it has undertaken, and whether any officers were disciplined, fired or charged.
The agency said claims that the officers are not well trained are \u201cshameful and laughable.\u201d
Federal law makes it difficult to sue a federal officer, although people in several cities have announced their intention to try. Many more have submitted their accounts in civil rights lawsuits aimed at slowing the operations.
One of them is Alec Bertrand<\/a>. On July 10, Bertrand, 30, woke up to messages about DHS arrests at a farm in Camarillo, California. He had seen immigrant communities emptied and silenced by raids and decided to act.
He drove toward the farm and joined protesters chanting and screaming in a roadway standoff with federal officers. Then someone who looked like a supervisor went down the line talking to the officers, Bertrand said. Their postures stiffened, and they adjusted their gas masks. Someone said, \u201cThey\u2019re going to shoot.\u201d
Bertrand, a musician and recording engineer, said he heard no warning when the officers opened fire from about 10 feet away. A rubber bullet hit him in the groin, then the shoulder and leg as he turned to run. He felt a heavy thud on his left hand and ducked behind a car. One of his fingers looked mangled. He thinks he was hit with something heavy, like a tear gas canister.
\u201cIt felt like a war zone where there\u2019s only one side that has weapons,\u201d Bertrand said. \u201cThe only weapon that we had was our speech, our voices.\u201d
Surgeons repaired one of his fingers with a screw, but he still can\u2019t properly move it \u2014 or play guitar. He had to find a new job. He started therapy \u2014 physical and psychological. He found a lawyer who filed papers<\/a> announcing his intention to sue DHS, saying officers \u201cillegally and unlawfully assaulted\u201d him. DHS previously declined to comment on Bertrand\u2019s allegations<\/a> but said officers had been attacked that day by people who threw objects at them.
Bertrand also shared his story in a lawsuit against DHS in Los Angeles, where a federal judge tried to rein in officers, saying they had \u201cunleashed crowd control weapons indiscriminately and with surprising savagery.\u201d The Trump administration is fighting that order.
Vincent Hawkins, an emergency room nurse in Portland, Oregon, believes DHS\u2019s summer operations were a prelude to the force they used later in other cities. In June, he was hit in the face<\/a> with a tear gas canister while he shouted at federal officers through a megaphone. He said he suffered a concussion and still has hourslong stretches, including at work, when he has trouble keeping his balance.
\u201cDHS as an agency was seeing how far they could push that envelope,\u201d Hawkins, 56, said. \u201cHow much could they hurt people exercising their free speech rights in nonviolent ways? How much violence could they bring on those people to shut them up that the public would tolerate?\u201d
The pain tore through Amanda Tovar with such ferocity, she thought she had been shot.
\u201cIt hit me! It hit me! It hit me!\u201d Tovar\u2019s voice, cracking with panic, says in a Facebook Live video of a Sept. 19 protest outside an immigrant processing center in Broadview, Illinois, where she said a canister of a chemical agent struck her chest.
\u201cYou\u2019re OK, nothing\u2019s bleeding,\u201d a woman says, trying to reassure Tovar. \u201cLook at my face.\u201d
But Tovar couldn\u2019t calm herself. Dozens of fully fatigued, armed officers had emerged from beyond a facility gate and were headed toward her and the other protesters, who had been shouting but were not violent, she said.
They lobbed flash-bang grenades, tear gas and pepper balls. \u201cF— yea!\u201d one agent exclaimed, according to a federal court order citing body camera footage<\/a>.
Two days later, Tovar, 39, a mother and special needs teacher, was in so much pain she went to the emergency room, where she was treated for \u201cchest wall trauma\u201d and acute back pain, according to discharge papers. She said she was told she was lucky to be alive because the canister struck right over her heart, which can cause internal bleeding.
That was a taste of \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d which launched in Chicago on Sept. 8 just after Trump posted on social media<\/a>, \u201cI love the smell of deportations in the morning. Chicago about to find out why it\u2019s called the Department of WAR.\u201d Several days into the chaotic operation, an ICE officer shot and killed Silverio Villegas Gonzalez<\/a>, a father from Mexico.
Protesters flocked to Broadview, where dozens of arrested immigrants were processed daily. Officers on a rooftop were recorded launching less lethal munitions at the media and peaceful demonstrators. The Rev. David Black said in interviews he had just prayed aloud for the agents when a pepper ball hit him in the head<\/a>. Levi Rolles, a frequent protester known as \u201cSpicy Jesus\u201d who was charged with obstructing and resisting and is set to appear in court next week, was shot so many times, his back was covered with raw, round welts<\/a>.
On Oct. 1, Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump\u2019s deportation policies, announced a new anti-crime task force<\/a> of law enforcement agencies including ICE. Criminals \u201chave no idea how ruthless we are,\u201d he said.
\u201cI see the guns and badges in this room. You are unleashed,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThe handcuffs you\u2019re carrying, they\u2019re not on you anymore.\u201d
Three days later, a CBP agent shot and injured Marimar Martinez, 30, a U.S. citizen; the agent who hit her bragged about his aim in text messages<\/a>.
Allegations of abuse mounted. Some officers in Chicago \u201claughed and made jokes about tear gassing protesters<\/a>,\u201d a federal judge found based on body camera video. Neighborhood after neighborhood felt the impact: Residents hid in their homes, schools went on lockdown<\/a> and children rushed indoors from recess<\/a>.
On Oct. 24, Miller sent another public message: \u201cTo all ICE officers, you have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties,\u201d he said on Fox News<\/a>. \u201cYou have immunity to perform your duties and no one \u2014 no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist \u2014 can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties.\u201d
The next day, more mayhem erupted. <\/strong>In Chicago\u2019s Old Irving Park neighborhood on the Saturday before Halloween, officers arrested a man and triggered a chain of events that ended with them shoving a father in a yellow duck costume to the ground and breaking the ribs of a 67-year-old resident. Officers then fired tear gas, filling the air and sickening a 2-year-old girl<\/a> and her mother who were playing in a nearby field. DHS later said officers were responding to \u201cagitators\u201d who posed a threat to law enforcement. Organizers canceled a costume parade.
Carlos Rodriguez, outside in his robe, was dumbfounded by this show of brute force. \u201cThe tear gas. That was the thing that was just absolutely outrageous,\u201d Rodriguez said. The officers, he said, \u201cwere in no shape or form in danger of anything.\u201d
A week later, Trump was asked on \u201c60 Minutes<\/a>\u201d if he thought some of the immigration raids had gone too far.
\u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cI think they haven\u2019t gone far enough.\u201d<\/a>
Not long afterward, in the town of Cicero, a family drove with their 1-year-old to Sam\u2019s Club with their windows down. Officers were seen on video spraying an orange substance<\/a> into their car, leaving their daughter\u2019s eyes burning, the family said.
After reviewing hours of footage from protesters and body-worn cameras, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis found a litany of civil rights violations by DHS officers that \u201cshocks the conscience.\u201d<\/a>
She barred the use of chemical weapons<\/a> unless officers\u2019 safety was in peril and demanded DHS officers tone it down.
They didn\u2019t. In suburban Evanston, officers deployed tear gas widely following a car crash with a civilian vehicle, prompting several schools<\/a> to go on lockdown. An officer pointed his gun at protesters<\/a>. Another officer was videotaped pinning a driver down and punching his head into the pavement.
\u201cThey\u2019re just cranking up the outrageous attacks and the brutal violence with every passing day,\u201d Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss said then. \u201cIt\u2019s horrifying to imagine where that might go.\u201d
The crackdown only accelerated.
A surge into Minneapolis swelled in January to roughly 3,000 federal officers, dwarfing the scale in Chicago. They flooded the city, encountering resistance nearly everywhere they went and using force to push protesters back, according to interviews and a review of dozens of videos.
As in Chicago, a judge, presented with evidence of repeated force against peaceful protesters \u2014 including an older couple who said in a court filing that officers pulled guns on them<\/a> while they sat in their car \u2014 ordered officers to stop<\/a>; and DHS, as it did in Chicago<\/a>, convinced a higher court to pause the order<\/a>.
The clashes crescendoed with the fatal shooting of two 37-year-old U.S. citizens: An ICE officer shot Renee Good dead in her car, and less than three weeks later CBP agents tackled Alex Pretti to the ground before killing him.
Furious residents took to the streets.
Drew Harmon, an organizer with grassroots group 50501, was protesting <\/a>Good\u2019s death when he said an agent reached under his helmet to pepper spray him at close range.
\u201cIt feels like someone just lit a match on your eyelid and put out a match on your eyelid,\u201d he said. \u201cDoes that sound like law enforcement to you or how law enforcement should be in our country?\u201d
Hours after Pretti was shot dead while restrained and kneeling, Leon Virden and one of his sons joined a protest near the scene. Some chanted, \u201cICE go home.\u201d No one was doing anything remotely threatening, Virden said. From a group of officers standing about 30 yards away, on the other side of a Dumpster, came a tear gas canister, which one of the group tried to kick away. Virden said he stepped forward to kick it farther, and a flash-bang soared toward him and exploded in his face.
Dazed and unable to hear well, Virden didn\u2019t realize how badly he\u2019d been wounded until he got to a hospital, where he got stitches in his cheek and his shattered jaw was rebuilt with metal plates and wired shut.
\u201cI thought I knew what to expect,\u201d Virden said. \u201cAnd this was beyond anything that should have happened. It was just, it was ridiculous.\u201d
In the days after Pretti\u2019s killing, amid growing condemnation<\/a> nationwide over the shootings<\/a>, the Trump administration pulled Bovino and hundreds of officers out of Minneapolis<\/a>. DHS signaled a shift to more targeted deportation operations<\/a>, rather than the broad sweeps and public confrontations of the past nine months.
And yet, on Jan. 31, after demonstrators in Portland, Oregon, blocked the driveway of an immigration facility, federal officers fired tear gas at a crowd that included children.
\u201cOwie, it burns,\u201d a little girl<\/a> in a pink butterfly sweater cried.
In response, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon ordered temporary limits<\/a> on use of force in Portland, saying DHS\u2019s culture is \u201cto celebrate violent responses over fair and diplomatic ones.\u201d
\u201cOur nation,\u201d he added, \u201cis now at a crossroads.\u201d
Jon Schuppe is an enterprise reporter for NBC News, based in New York.
Natasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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