Federal law enforcement at the border used tear gas and pepper spray during the Obama administration at significantly higher rates than either of the two years President Trump has been in office, according to government data obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Under President Barack Obama in 2013, U.S. Customs and Border Protection used Pava Capsaicin, known as pepper spray, at nearly three times the rate it did in 2017, Donald Trump’s first year in office.
In 2012, 95 pepper spray incidents were reported. That number surged to 151 in 2013 then dropped to 109 in 2014, according to data provided by the Department of Homeland Security.
Pepper spray incidents then dropped significantly to 30 in 2015 and 49 in 2016.
In 2017, 56 similar incidents took place. In the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, saw 43 deployments of pepper spray under Trump. The spray is directed toward an assailant’s eyes and causes the eyeballs to burn for a few minutes.
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the numbers indicate the Trump administration has been the victim of a double standard.
“Border Patrol Agents acted with great restraint on Sunday when faced with an extremely tense and dangerous situation all the while acting under Obama era policies,” Judd said in an email to the Examiner. “If this situation would’ve happened under the Obama Administration, our agents would’ve been hailed as heroes.”
“This near riot was orchestrated and perpetuated by persons intent on breaking our laws. They attempted to enter our country illegally by any means possible yet the mainstream media is attempting to blame President Trump instead of the criminals. President Trump and the brave men and women of the Border Patrol are villainized while the criminals are glamorized,” he continued.
CBP, a homeland security agency that includes U.S. Border Patrol, Air and Marine Operations, and the Office of Field Operations, has also been using tear gas since 2010. DHS only provided data since 2012.
Tear gas, technically referred to as 2-chlorobenzylidene malonoitrile (CS), was used by CBP officers and Border Patrol agents on 26 occasions in 2012.
That number dropped over the next few years down to three total incidents in fiscal 2016.
The use of tear gas has crept back up to levels seen in 2012 and 2013 during Trump’s first two years in office. In 2017, 18 deployments of gas were documented. Twenty-nine were counted in 2018.
Border Patrol agents stationed in the San Diego Sector used tear gas Sunday when between 500 and 1,000 people attempted to storm the border near the San Ysidro port of entry.
Images from the incident showed agents used the gas after people started crawling in a gap between old, dilapidated fencing and new, replacement wall.
However, other images of the event showed families and children in the vicinity, prompting some Central American leaders and U.S. Democratic politicians to scold CBP and the Trump administration for what they said were attacks on children.
[Opinion: Don’t want your kids to get tear-gassed? Leave them at home when you riot]
“Under no circumstances should CBP be using tear gas on children. This show of violence is outrageous and inhumane. The migrants at our southern border are human beings, including mothers and small children, who are exercising their legal, human right to seek asylum,” Lorella Praeli, deputy political director at the ACLU, said in a statement.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, wrote on Twitter that chemical weapons were being used.
“Tear gas across the border against unarmed families is a new low,” Schatz wrote. “Who gave the order? Did it implement or contravene policy? … Why tear gas? Is this consistent with the Conventions on Chemical Weapons?”
Schatz later deleted the set of tweets.
Mexico’s Interior Ministry announced Monday it was deporting 98 foreigners who had assaulted federal law enforcement on Sunday.
Late Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said more than 600 members of the 10,000 migrants are convicted criminals.
