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Trump S Immigration Forces Deploy Less Lethal Weapons In Pbs

Leo Migdal
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trump s immigration forces deploy less lethal weapons in pbs

Civil rights and weapons experts cite the consequences of federal agents’ use of crowd control weapons: religious leaders shot with pepper balls and noxious chemicals. A nurse nearly blinded by tear gas. Protestors trapped, struggling to breathe. This story contains videos and photos showing blood and violence against protesters This story is part of a collaboration between FRONTLINE and ProPublica that includes an upcoming documentary. As the Trump administration’s immigration dragnet intensified in June, a nurse in Portland, Oregon, left work one midafternoon and drove to a nearby detention facility to voice his opposition.

Federal agents had set off smoke grenades, driving away many protesters at the front of the facility, but Vincent Hawkins lifted his megaphone anyway. “You should stop and think about what you’re doing!” This story is part of a collaboration between FRONTLINE and ProPublica that includes an upcoming documentary. As the Trump administration’s immigration dragnet intensified in June, a nurse in Portland, Oregon, left work one midafternoon and drove to a nearby detention facility to voice his opposition. Federal agents had set off smoke grenades, driving away many protesters at the front of the facility, but Vincent Hawkins lifted his megaphone anyway. “You should stop and think about what you’re doing!”

The shot came seconds later, a silver projectile launched through the small facility’s closed gate, hitting him in the face. The tear gas canister shattered his glasses, ripped apart his brow, crushed against his eye and concussed him. In video footage, the projectile can be seen bouncing off his face and arcing back toward the unknown Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fired it. Hawkins, a 25-year veteran of the emergency room, was rushed to one, bleeding and wondering if he’d ever see through his left eye again. A frequent demonstrator, he knew the risks. He’d seen friends struggling to breathe through toxic chemical clouds, others pelted with pepper balls.

But Hawkins was undeterred. Image: Agents from the Department of Homeland Security converge on protesters outside a Portland, Oregon, Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in October. Spencer Platt/Getty Images As the Trump administration’s immigration dragnet intensified in June, a nurse in Portland, Oregon, left work one midafternoon and drove to a nearby detention facility to voice his opposition. Federal agents had set off smoke grenades, driving away many protesters at the front of the facility, but Vincent Hawkins lifted his megaphone anyway. “You should stop and think about what you’re doing!”

The shot came seconds later, a silver projectile launched through the small facility’s closed gate, hitting him in the face. The tear gas canister shattered his glasses, ripped apart his brow, crushed against his eye and concussed him. In video footage, the projectile can be seen bouncing off his face and arcing back toward the unknown Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fired it. Hawkins, a 25-year veteran of the emergency room, was rushed to one, bleeding and wondering if he’d ever see through his left eye again. A frequent demonstrator, he knew the risks. He’d seen friends struggling to breathe through toxic chemical clouds, others pelted with pepper balls.

But Hawkins was undeterred. One afternoon in early October, a 30-year-old teaching assistant named Marimar Martinez was driving around Chicago’s majority-Latino Brighton Park neighborhood warning people that federal immigration agents were coming. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were riding in a car behind her. One of them aimed an assault rifle at her and shouted “do something, bitch” before opening fire, video of the incident shows. Martinez, an American citizen, was hit five times, and miraculously survived.

The agents claimed she rammed their car and arrested her. Martinez’s lawyers unearthed video footage contradicting that claim, showing agents ramming her car, and prosecutors dropped the charges. The court case produced text messages from the agent who shot her, bragging about his feat: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.” Martinez’s shooting is one of the most high-profile cases connected to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which began in Los Angeles in June and has since spread to Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Memphis, Tennessee; Portland,... And where immigration agents have gone, gun-fueled chaos has usually followed.

Using Gun Violence Archive data and news clips, The Trace is tracking incidents in which federal agents shoot someone or hold them at gunpoint during an immigration enforcement action under Trump’s crackdown. We’ve identified 19 such incidents, including nine shootings, as of December 9. They include the shootings of three people observing or documenting ICE raids; the shootings of three people driving away from traffic stops or evading an enforcement action; and the September 30 raid on a... At least one person has been killed and four others have been injured. Our numbers are likely an undercount, as shootings involving immigration agents are not always publicly reported. ProPublica and FRONTLINE found more than two dozen cases of immigration agents using "less lethal" weapons in ways that appear to flout the government's own rules, including by aiming at someone’s head, spine or...

Read the investigation here: https://to.pbs.org/47ZuEms Michael E. O’Hanlon, Marta E. Wosińska, Mark Muro, Thomas Wright This story was originally published by ProPublica. As the Trump administration’s immigration dragnet intensified in June, a nurse in Portland, left work one midafternoon and drove to a nearby detention facility to voice his opposition.

Federal agents had set off smoke grenades, driving away many protesters at the front of the facility, but Vincent Hawkins lifted his megaphone anyway. “You should stop and think about what you’re doing!” The shot came seconds later, a silver projectile launched through the small facility’s closed gate, hitting him in the face. The tear gas canister shattered his glasses, ripped apart his brow, crushed against his eye and concussed him. In video footage, the projectile can be seen bouncing off his face and arcing back toward the unknown Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fired it. Hawkins, a 25-year veteran of the emergency room, was rushed to one, bleeding and wondering if he’d ever see through his left eye again.

A frequent demonstrator, he knew the risks. He’d seen friends struggling to breathe through toxic chemical clouds, others pelted with pepper balls. But Hawkins was undeterred. Tracking Trump and Latin America: Security—National Security Strategy Released How is the U.S. administration furthering its national security agenda in the Americas?

This piece was originally published on September 11, 2025. New content is regularly added. Khalea Robertson contributed to this article. From a boost in U.S. troop numbers at the U.S.–Mexico border to an increased military presence in the southern Caribbean, security policy concerning Latin America rests high on the agenda of the second Trump administration. Since he retook the reins of the presidency, U.S.

President Donald Trump has focused on a marquee security goal in the Western Hemisphere: defeating drug cartels and other criminal groups. While campaigning back in December 2023, he declared, “The drug cartels are waging war on America—and it's now time for America to wage war on the cartels.” Since then, the Trump administration has leveraged...

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