Top U.S. border official defends use of tear gas against migrants

WASHINGTON — The head of the federal agency responsible for protecting the U.S. border on Tuesday defended his agents for using tear gas against migrants last month, but lawmakers pressed him about women and children forced to flee clouds of the noxious gas.

The testimony marked the administration’s most detailed explanation of the Nov. 25 clash, when Border Patrol agents blocked several hundred Central American migrants trying to rush en masse across the San Ysidro port of entry, south of San Diego.

“We did not fire at young children on the border,” Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, parent agency of the Border Patrol, told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Of course our policy does not authorize firing tear gas at young children, nor has that happened.”

He said the tear gas was aimed at migrants throwing rocks and other objects at U.S. personnel from the Mexican side of the border. Four Border Patrol agents were struck in the melee and McAleenan said Tuesday that one needed knee surgery.

McAleenan said the agents followed regulations on use of force when they launched tear gas canisters in an effort to stop those throwing rocks and to disperse the surging crowd.

“It’s unfortunate that women and children were in the vicinity of the group trying to enter the U.S,” he added.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the committee, questioned the use of a chemical gas, saying it could not be aimed with precision and harmed children.

“That’s not a picture, or act, that befits this country,” Feinstein said.

McAleenan said his agency has launched a review of the incident, as is required when agents use force. Federal law allows border agents to use force in self-defense and for crowd control.

“This incident has been criticized and mischaracterized,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the committee. “The use of tear gas isn’t unprecedented.”

Grassley said border agents have fired tear gas 126 times since 2012, including 79 times under President Barack Obama.

The number of incidents in which Border Patrol agents used lethal force has dropped since 2014, when a series of scandals forced the agency to establish a review board. Agents’ use of firearms has dropped from a high of 55 times in fiscal 2012 to 17 in fiscal 2017, a record low, McAleenan said.