How often did CBP report using pepper spray and tear gas during the Obama administration, and what incident‑level details exist?
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Executive summary
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data made public in 2018 show that during the latter half of the Obama presidency CBP reported dozens of deployments of tear gas and hundreds of deployments of pepper spray: tear gas was used 79 times in Obama’s second term (2012–2016) and pepper spray was recorded in 434 incidents during those same five fiscal years, with sharp year-to-year variation including a 151‑instance peak in 2013 [1] [2] [3].
1. How often: the headline numbers and averages
CBP told reporters it had used tear gas (CS) since 2010 and, according to published agency figures, tear gas was deployed 126 times from fiscal 2012 through 2018, with 79 of those incidents occurring during Obama’s final five fiscal years (2012–2016) — an average of about 15.8 tear‑gas incidents per year, or roughly 1.3 per month for that period [3] [1] [4]. For pepper spray (Pava Capsaicin), CBP recorded 540 incidents across fiscal 2012–2018 and fact‑checking reporting notes that 434 (about 80 percent) of those pepper‑spray incidents fell within the five full fiscal years under Obama [2].
2. Yearly breakdowns and notable peaks
Contemporaneous reporting provides a more granular look at pepper‑spray deployments: Newsweek and other outlets cited CBP figures showing 95 pepper‑spray uses in FY2012, a jump to 151 in FY2013, then 109 in FY2014, a sharp drop to 30 in FY2015, 49 in FY2016, and continuing counts into 2017–2018 [3]. Multiple outlets corroborate the 2013 peak (151 incidents) as the high point under Obama [5] [6]. Tear‑gas counts were lower and steadier but still notable: roughly two dozen in both FY2012 and FY2013, contributing to the 79‑incident total across 2012–2016 [3] [1].
3. Incident‑level details that reporting documents
Reporting supplies only limited incident‑level narrative beyond aggregate counts, but one frequently cited episode in November 2013 at the San Ysidro port of entry is consistently described: Border Patrol agents used pepper spray and “pepper balls” to repel a group of roughly 100 migrants who reportedly threw rocks and bottles while attempting to breach the crossing [4] [7] [6]. CBP and DHS statements released around similar events framed the deployments as responses to assaults on agents and attempts to unlawfully rush ports of entry [1] [8]. Beyond that 2013 San Diego area incident, the public data do not systematically include detailed circumstances for each recorded deployment, and several fact‑checkers noted CBP did not provide full incident narratives for the counts it released [3] [9].
4. What analysts and fact‑checkers add and what remains uncertain
Independent fact‑checkers and local reporting confirmed the broad pattern—tear gas and pepper spray were used across multiple administrations and were not new tactics introduced by one president—but they also flagged important limits: aggregate tallies do not reveal how many people were affected per incident, whether children were exposed in particular Obama‑era deployments, or the precise legal and operational context for each use [2] [10] [9]. PolitiFact, Snopes and FactCheck.org reproduced CBP’s numbers while cautioning readers about gaps in incident‑level detail and the absence of complete earlier‑term data (2009–2011) in the released spreadsheets [4] [2] [9].
5. Competing narratives, framing and implicit agendas
Media and political actors used the CBP figures to tell different stories: some outlets and commentators emphasized that such crowd‑control measures were routine under Obama to blunt criticisms of Trump-era deployments, while others stressed that the picture lacks necessary context and that visual evidence from 2018 involving children made those incidents distinct and newsworthy [11] [12] [8]. Fact‑checking outlets warned that raw counts can be weaponized politically without fuller incident narratives; the original CBP disclosures did not provide that narrative detail, which leaves open reasonably competing interpretations grounded in the same data [2] [9].
Conclusion
CBP’s released numbers establish that pepper spray was used hundreds of times and tear gas dozens of times during the Obama administration’s later years—pepper spray roughly 434 incidents in 2012–2016 and tear gas 79 incidents in that same span—and they single out specific episodes such as the November 2013 San Ysidro pepper‑spray response to a crowd that allegedly threw projectiles; however, public reporting and CBP statements do not supply comprehensive incident‑level narratives for every recorded deployment, leaving substantive contextual gaps that independent reporting and fact‑checkers have repeatedly noted [2] [4] [7] [3].