From a story by reporter Maxine Bernstein that appeared Friday, March 6, in the Oregonian/OregonLive:

A judge on Friday ordered federal officers to stop unleashing tear gas that could seep into Gray’s Landing, the low-income apartment complex across the street from Portland’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, unless they face an imminent deadly threat.

“The Court recognizes a preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy, but this is an extraordinary case,” U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio wrote in a 57-page opinion.

Baggio found federal officers showed “deliberate indifference” based on the quantity of chemical munitions they have used against those protesting President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown as they have gathered outside the ICE field office.

Federal officers have launched the munitions contrary to their own agency’s use-of-force manuals and continued to do so despite complaints of harm from nearby residents, Baggio found.

Her order was short and to the point.

PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION ORDER

Defendants are hereby enjoined as follows pending the final resolution of this case: Defendants, their agents, and all persons acting in concert or participation with Defendants are enjoined from using chemical munitions in quantities such that the aerosolized chemicals discharged from said munitions are likely to reach Gray’s Landing—including the Resident Plaintiffs’ individual apartments. Such use is prohibited unless it is determined to be necessary to address an imminent threat to life.

IT IS SO ORDERED.
DATED this 6th day of March, 2026.

Unlike her concise order, Judge Battio’s opinion ran for 57 pages in which she reviewed the facts of the situation as presented in an evidentiary hearing lasting several days, and walked step by step through her application of the law.

Government agents showed “deliberate indifference and a ‘protracted failure even to care,’ while acting contrary to their own use of force policies, Judge Baggio found.

Her order applies to the agencies confronting public protests outside the ICE building in Portland, Oregon, including Dept. of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol, and Federal Protective Service, the U.S. Secret Service, and their agency heads.

And the term “chemical munitions” barred from use absent “an imminent threat to life” includes a variety of items defined in the opinion, which took a long section to describe.

Oleoresin capsicum (“OC”‘) is “an oil-based irritant derived from chili peppers, commonly known as pepper spray, in aerosol format.” Officers can deploy OC gas in the form of a handheld spray, such as by using an MK-9 canister or “fogger.” MK-9 canisters can deploy OC up to roughly twelve to twenty feet. OC can also be deployed using a hand-thrown munition, such as a grenade. OC can also be deployed in the form of “breakable ‘pepper balls’ that release OC in a dust format” from a “PepperBall Launching System” (“PLS”). “The immediate impact zone for [a] pepper ball is a 3-6 [foot] radius when deployed at dry hard ground from the PLS.”

Pelargonic acid vanillylamide (“PAVA”) is “[a] synthetic version of OC.” PAVA rounds can affect a fifteen-foot radius where deployed. PAVA can be deployed through an FN 303 launch system (a compressed air launcher) or a PLS with an area of impact ranging from ten to 300 feet.

O-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (“CS”) is commonly referred to as “tear gas. It is “a class of chemical agent that is a powder at room temperature” that will either “explode” or react with a “pyrotechnic” such that a “gas cloud” forms. FPS does not authorize its officers to use munitions containing CS. CBP and ICE officers, however, do use munitions containing CS. Federal officers have used CS near the Portland ICE Facility in the form of hand-thrown canisters, 40MM rounds deployed from launchers, and grenades. When deployed with a “40 mm” or “Less Lethal Specialty Impact and Chemical Munitions” (‘LLSI-CM”) launcher, CS munitions “can impact up to 450 feet.”

Finally, federal officers have used “stinger” munitions, which may contain “more than none agent” including OC, PAVA, or CS.

The full opinion and order appear below.