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Fact check: What types of chemical agents are reportedly being stockpiled by ICE?
Executive Summary
ICE is reported to have been purchasing and stockpiling a range of chemical crowd-control munitions — notably tear gas, pepper spray, and pepper balls — alongside other “less-lethal” devices and explosive components, according to multiple investigative and news accounts dated October 2025. Reporting also highlights a major spike in weapons spending that funded these buys, while local reporting ties the agents’ use to documented health impacts and judicial limits on use [1] [2] [3].
1. Bold claim: ICE is acquiring chemical crowd-control agents — what reporters say is in the inventory
Multiple October 2025 reports assert that ICE has been purchasing tear gas and other chemical irritants, including pepper spray variants and pepper balls, which are small projectiles that release irritants on impact. Investigations characterize these items as part of a broader category of “chemical munitions” or “chemical agents,” and describe purchases logged in procurement records and public-contract databases as well as documented field use near facilities such as the Portland ICE site. The reporting frames these buys as deliberate acquisitions of crowd-control chemicals rather than incidental supplies [1] [2] [3].
2. Procurement picture: spending surge that enabled the buys
Reporting from October 20–21, 2025 documents a roughly 700% increase in ICE weapons spending for 2025, totaling about $71.5 million, with line items described as including chemical munitions and “distraction devices.” Investigative outlets detail specific contracts and categories — for example, large purchases tied to munitions suppliers and a notable $9.1M firearms contract — which together provided the budgetary capacity for bulk buys of less-lethal and chemical agents. The spending spike is presented as the proximate reason the agency could amass chemical crowd-control inventories at scale [2] [4] [3].
3. What “chemical munitions” and “distraction devices” mean in the reports
Sources use varying terminology: some accounts call items “chemical munitions” or “chemical agents,” while others list entry-level terms like pepper balls, pepper spray, and tear gas. “Distraction devices” appears alongside flash-bang grenades and other non-chemical items, indicating procurement bundles that mix explosive and irritant technologies. The practical implication is that records and contracts show purchases across several types of crowd-control tools, not a single monolithic weapon, which complicates simple characterizations about what exactly was stockpiled [5] [2] [6].
4. Reported field use and health consequences tied to the stockpiles
Local reporting from October 20, 2025 links the use of tear gas and related irritants near ICE facilities to acute health effects including burning eyes, blurred vision, coughing, choking, and difficulty breathing among residents and bystanders. Investigations also recount incidents where pepper balls or other munitions struck people or property, such as a pastor and a reporter’s vehicle, creating concrete examples of how purchased items were deployed and the human impacts of that deployment. The reporting uses these incidents to connect procurement records to real-world harms [1] [2].
5. Legal and policy pushback documented after the purchases and uses
In mid-October 2025, a federal judge imposed restrictions banning the routine use of tear gas, chemical irritants, and other aggressive riot-control weapons by DHS and ICE unless in life-or-death situations. Coverage from October 14 and later pieces cite that judicial action as a direct response to aggressive uses of chemical tools and broader concerns over militarized tactics. The legal response frames some of the purchases and deployments as subject to new judicial scrutiny, raising questions about what is permissible given the recently documented procurement and incidents [5].
6. Conflicting framings: “chemical weapons” versus “less-lethal munitions”
Across October 2025 accounts, language varies between alarmed descriptors like “chemical weapons” or “guided missile warheads” in rhetoric and more technical labels such as “less-lethal specialty impact and chemical munitions.” This inconsistency reveals competing narratives: one emphasizes the scale and potential lethality of acquisitions to spotlight escalation, while the other attempts a narrower, operational framing of crowd-control tools. The variance suggests editorial agendas and rhetorical choices influence how procurement records are presented to the public [7] [5] [3].
7. Bottom line and gaps that still need answering
The reporting from October 14–21, 2025 consistently identifies tear gas, pepper spray, and pepper balls as the principal chemical agents ICE is said to have stockpiled, embedded within a larger surge in spending that funded diverse munitions and explosive devices. What remains less clear from available reporting is a line-by-line, itemized inventory published by ICE that reconciles contract descriptions with specific quantities and deployment orders, making definitive accounting and policy oversight more difficult. The combination of procurement records, incident reports, and judicial limits, however, offers a credible, multi-source picture that these chemical crowd-control agents were purchased and employed [1] [2] [3].