John,

Donald Trump is trying to sow chaos and fear, and silence his critics by sending troops into major cities like Chicago and Portland. And he’s doing this against the wishes of city and state leaders―Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker said it best:¹

“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion. It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.”

This week, ICE agents outside a detention facility even shot a Chicago Pastor in the head with pepper balls.²

This is an egregious abuse of power, and it puts people’s lives in danger. In addition to pepper balls, troops are attacking peaceful protestors with tear gas. Both pepper balls and tear gas are chemical weapons so hazardous that they are banned in war by the Geneva Convention. They have no business being used on our streets to stifle freedom of speech and assembly―rights that the U.S. Constitution guarantees.³

Send a direct message to Congress urging them to ban the use of tear gas to silence dissent.

Short-term exposure to tear gas can cause chest tightness, difficulty breathing, and a burning sensation inside the nose. Long-term effects can include blindness and respiratory failure.⁴

Asal Rezaei, a reporter for CBS Chicago News, was driving 50 feet away from a protest site when ICE agents shot a pepper ball into her car and attacked her with chemical gas. She said online that she was throwing up for two hours.⁵

Cities like Denver, Portland, and Seattle have made efforts to ban tear gas from their streets―but these bans need to become the norm nationwide.⁶ As federal law enforcement increasingly resorts to tear gas and pepper balls against its own people, Congress must ban the use of chemical weapons in domestic law enforcement and get it off our streets now.

Send a message to Congress telling them to get tear gas off our streets and ban it now.

Thank you for all you do,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, CHN Action

¹Gov. Pritzker Statement on the Texas National Guard Being Deployed to Illinois
²Pastor Shot in Head by “Less Lethal” Round at Chicago-Area ICE Protest Joins Lawsuit
³The military is banned from using tear gas on the battlefield, but police can use it on crowds at home. Here’s why
⁴Riot Control Agents
⁵Body slamming, teargas and pepper balls: viral videos show Ice using extreme force in Chicago
⁶Portland is the latest city to suspend the use of tear gas on protesters