Over 90% of documented incidents occurred in five cities, researchers say

A report released this week by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the University of California, Berkeley Human Rights Center (HRC) documented 412 verified incidents of what the organizations described as misuse of crowd control weapons — also termed “less-lethal weapons” — during anti-immigration protests across the United States between June 2025 and May 2026. The report and an accompanying interactive map catalog 203 injuries resulting from the alleged misuse, including blindings, traumatic brain injuries, lacerations, fractures and contusions.

“This is a concerning story,” said Dr. Rohini Haar, the lead author of the report and a PHR medical expert, in an interview with the Guardian.

The researchers said the true number of injuries is likely far greater, because visual investigative techniques cannot adequately assess invisible injuries such as chemical injury, chronic pain or hearing loss.

The crowd control weapons documented include chemical irritants — teargas, pepper spray and Mace — as well as kinetic impact projectiles such as rubber bullets and bean bag rounds. The report also recorded the use of stun grenades, water cannon, and improvised weapons such as horses and riot shields.

The report defined misuse by three criteria: whether people in protected categories, including journalists and health workers, were targeted; whether vulnerable populations, including elderly people and children, were affected; and whether the weapons were used improperly, such as at close range, aimed at the head, or in violation of manufacturing guidelines.

Federal officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — were responsible for 64% of the misuse incidents, according to the report. Local law enforcement officers also played a role in many incidents, particularly in cities such as Los Angeles.

The researchers found that the use of crowd control weapons increased during immigration enforcement surge operations under the command of former Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino, who took a hardline approach to enforcement tactics. “In each city where there were federal directions to escalate enforcement, incident counts rose sharply within days,” PHR said in a statement. “Much of this was coincident with the arrival of Greg Bovino.”

Bovino was removed from his position after the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal immigration officials. He later became critical of the Trump administration, accusing it of not taking a tough-enough approach, and retired in March 2026.

The report notes that over 90% of the documented misuse incidents occurred in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Newark and Portland — cities where mass protests have erupted since June 2025.

One high-profile incident occurred at the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, where ICE officials pepper sprayed New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim during a protest. The use of crowd control weapons at that facility drew national attention and led to multiple injuries.

A separate ProPublica report earlier this year identified 70 children across the U.S. who had been harmed by teargas or pepper spray, not only at protests but also during immigration enforcement operations.

Since January 2025, federal immigration officials with DHS have been responsible for at least 11 shooting deaths, according to the Guardian. The two most recent fatal shootings by immigration authorities took place in July 2026, less than one week apart, in Texas and Maine. On July 7, ICE agents shot and killed 52-year-old construction worker Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during an arrest operation in Houston. On July 13, a 26-year-old Colombian man was shot and killed by a federal official in Biddeford, Maine, DHS confirmed.

The DHS did not respond to the Guardian’s inquiries about the report’s findings before publication.