What Do Tear Gas and ICE Raids Do to People?

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Education, Science, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 12.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Federal agents have descended on Minneapolis in the U.S., and things have gotten chaotic — and deadly. The Trump administration says the agents are there to enforce immigration law, but officers have shot three people so far, killing two, and are using tear gas and smoke on protesters. So today, we’re looking at the potential health impacts of tear gas. We’ll talk about what we do — and don’t — know about potential long-term effects of this stuff. And we’re also looking into research on the mental health effects of immigration raids. We speak to Dr. Jennifer Brown, Dr. Carlee Toddes, and Dr. William Lopez. This episode does mention mental health issues. Find resources here: spotify.com/resources For more on William Lopez’s research on ICE raids, check out his new book, Raiding the Heartland https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53706/raiding-heartland?srsltid=AfmBOoperKoqv48ZYzaHfQ87nM2xI3QiAbI7lo2wLqt5BykNo-47cHxS Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/3MbC1Py Transcripción en español: https://bit.ly/4cm5b9i In this episode, we cover: (00:00) What’s going on in Minneapolis? (05:40) Tear gas is banned in war (08:34) What tear gas does to the body (16:44) The possible long-term effects of tear gas (22:44) Can you protect yourself from tear gas? (24:36) How immigration raids affect people’s health (34:10) Do ICE raids make communities safer? This episode was produced by Blythe Terrell, Meryl Horn, Michelle Dang, Ekedi Fausther-Keeys and Rose Rimler. Wendy Zukerman is our executive producer. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Michelle Dang and Ekedi Fausther-Keeys. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord. Music written by Bobby Lord, Bumi Hidaka, So Wylie, Emma Munger and Peter Leonard. Special thanks to all the Minnesotans who took the time to speak to us about what’s going on there, including photographer Matt Gundrum. Thanks also to the other researchers we spoke to, including Dr. Margot Moinester, Professor Joanna Dreby. Thanks to Paul Schreiber, Nimra Azmi, Whitney Potter and Jack Weinstein. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Rose Rimler, filling in for Wendy Zuckerman, and you're listening to Science Verses.
0:07.6	Today we're talking about tear gas, and we're talking about ice raids and what they do to people, according to science.
0:15.3	And we're talking about this stuff because of what's going on in Minneapolis in the U.S. right now.
0:20.8	A few weeks ago, the U.S. government sent in a bunch of immigration and customs enforcement
0:24.7	agents to the city. They called it, quote, the largest immigration operation ever.
0:31.0	There's border patrol agents involved, too.
0:33.8	And we're hearing about all kinds of people being detained in all kinds of ways.
0:38.6	New video shows a grandfather walked out of his home wearing just a blanket, shorts, and
0:43.8	slippers during our bitter cold blast. His family says he's a U.S. citizen. A local school district
0:49.8	who's sounding alarms, they say about four of their students take it into ICE custody.
0:54.1	The family's attorney and school officials say ICE used a five-year-old boy to knock on the
0:59.9	door of his own home to lure out other family members. And for weeks, Minnesotans have been pushing
1:05.5	back. They're organizing marches and protests, taking video of what these agents are doing,
1:10.3	and federal agents
1:11.7	have cracked down violently on all this. There's reports and video of them using tear gas and
1:17.4	smoke on crowds. Images of agents spraying people directly in the eyes with this stuff.
1:23.5	And they've shot three people in Minneapolis so far, killing two of them.
1:28.4	The government has said that the people they've killed pose some kind of threat to their agents.
1:33.5	Though the evidence and videos from the scene, don't back that up.
1:37.3	We talked to some folks who have been there, including this guy that we're going to call T,
1:41.5	who's lived in Minneapolis, for more than a decade.
1:44.9	We talked to him on the 24th, the day that agents killed a protester named Alex Pretti. I woke up to a bunch of
	...

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