Annie Comes Home: Help get this chemical weapon out of ICE’s hands

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Help get this chemical weapon out of ICE’s hands

"He was just lifeless, like he had foam around his mouth. He had tears coming out of his eyes."

Pamela, this is one horrified mother's account after federal immigration agents in Minneapolis tear-gassed her car while her children, including her six-month-old baby, were still inside.[1]

The desperate mother performed CPR on her child, who, thankfully, survived. This disturbing incident is just one of many accounts of federal and state agents deploying a dangerous chemical weapon in communities across the country.

Tear gas is BANNED in warfare by both the Chemical Weapons Convention and Geneva Protocol. But there's a dangerous exception that allows its use for "domestic riot control purposes," which the Trump administration apparently thinks includes peaceful protests.

Congress must STOP ICE and other agencies from using dangerous chemical weapons — and we're sending them a message tens of thousands of people strong to ensure they can't ignore our demands.

There's no justification for law enforcement to threaten our communities with a chemical weapon too dangerous for a battlefield. Will you write your lawmakers to demand that Congress ban the use of tear gas?

ACT NOW

Short-term effects of tear gas include immediate, intense pain, excessive tearing, burning or blurred vision, as well as a runny nose, chest tightness, coughing, shortness of breath, and a feeling of choking. In the long-term, chemical burns, blindness, and even death due to respiratory failure have all been tied to tear gas exposure.

Yet, the use of tear gas, as we saw in Minnesota, isn't an exception; it's increasingly becoming the norm. Like in Portland last month, where onlookers described a "war zone" as federal agents used what looked like "rocket launchers" to deploy tear gas.[2]

"To be among parents frantically trying to tend to little children in strollers, people using motorized carts trying to navigate as the rest of us staggered in retreat, unsure of how to get to safety, was terrifying," a former reporter who joined the demonstration told the Oregonian.

While state and local governments in Illinois, Denver, Portland, and Seattle have taken steps toward banning tear gas from their communities, we urgently need to get this chemical weapon off our streets nationwide — especially as Trump's deportation force increasingly resorts to violence and tear gas in response to people exercising their right to protest.

With your help, we'll build the political pressure for Congress to act on the calls we're hearing from people and communities across the country: Ban tear gas. No exceptions.

Tear gas has no place being used against people, not now or in the future, not on the battlefield, and not in our streets. Click here to demand that your elected officials ban law enforcement from using tear gas against civilians.

Thank you for working for peace,
The Win Without War team