Gray’s Landing Residents and REACH Take Action to Protect Health and Safety
Standing with Minneapolis. Protecting Gray’s Landing. Fighting for Housing Justice.
Families at Gray’s Landing, an affordable housing community developed by REACH, are facing an unimaginable challenge: repeated exposure to toxic chemicals inside their own homes. Today, REACH and residents joined together to ask a federal court for immediate relief to stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using tear gas and other chemical munitions near Gray’s Landing.
For months, federal officers have deployed tear gas and smoke grenades during protests near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility next door. These chemicals don’t stay outside—they seep into apartments where families live, where children sleep, and where seniors and veterans seek safety. Residents have reported coughing indoors, struggling to breathe, and even needing emergency medical care. Some have resorted to sealing windows and wearing gas masks inside their homes.
This is not just unacceptable—it’s dangerous. Tear gas and similar chemical agents are banned in warfare because of their harmful effects. Yet they are being used in ways that predictably expose innocent people to toxins in their own homes.
REACH and Gray’s Landing residents, represented by Democracy Forward, Protect Democracy, Jacobson Lawyers Group PLLC, and Bradley Bernstein Sands LLP, have filed a motion asking the court to block further use of these chemicals near Gray’s Landing while the case proceeds. The lawsuit argues that the government’s actions violate constitutional rights to safety, bodily integrity, and the peaceful use of one’s home.
“Gray’s Landing is a residential community,” said Margaret Salazar, CEO of REACH Community Development. “Families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities are repeatedly exposed to chemical agents deployed from the ICE facility just feet from their homes. Daily life has become a source of stress and fear. REACH is standing with residents to protect their health and well-being while the court considers our case.”
Residents like Mindy King, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, describe the impact firsthand: “This is my home, and chemical agents have repeatedly entered our apartments. The exposure has made it harder to breathe and disrupted everyday life for me and my family.”
The case is REACH Community Development et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, et al. We will continue to share updates as we fight to ensure that everyone at Gray’s Landing can live safely and with dignity.
