tear-gassed children – Charles Mauldin, tear-gassed at 17 during the Selma march in 1965, now watches videos of children tear-gassed by federal immigration officers during Trump’s deportation push.
When Charles Mauldin watched footage of children being tear-gassed during President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, the images struck a nerve he has spent decades learning to live with.
Mauldin, 78, remembers the attack that came before the modern language of “terror” and “trauma” filled news alerts.. On March 7. 1965. as a 17-year-old. he joined hundreds of demonstrators marching from Selma. Alabama. to the state Capitol in Montgomery to demand voting rights for Black Americans.. He walked near the front, just two rows behind John Lewis, the future civil rights icon and U.S.. representative.
The march tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.. On the far side, law enforcement waited and ordered the group to disperse.. After about a minute and a half. Mauldin said. officers began attacking demonstrators with billy clubs and then launched tear gas into the crowd. which included teenagers like him.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” Mauldin said. “I was fearful. We had to put ourselves in a place beyond fear.”
More than 60 years later. he said he feels the impact again. watching reports and videos of federal immigration officers using tear gas on children in 2026.. “Having people like ICE treat people the way we were treated 61 years ago, it’s horrible,” he said.. “It’s traumatizing for young kids, and I’m just starting to realize how traumatizing it is for me.”
Mauldin keeps a photograph from that day, showing demonstrators crossing the bridge in 1965. He is in the third row, centered and looking at the camera, while Lewis appears in the first row at the right.
The renewed use of chemical munitions comes amid scrutiny of whether federal practice differs from local policing.. Unlike some state or municipal policies. federal immigration enforcement does not operate under a national standard governing tear gas or pepper spray.. That gap can leave officers with more discretion to deploy these weapons.
In an investigation published recently by Misryoum. reporters found at least 79 children have been physically harmed by tear gas and pepper spray during Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts.. The cases described include a 6-month-old baby who briefly stopped breathing. a 12-year-old boy who developed hives. and a 17-year-old who suffered a severe asthma attack.. In many of the situations documented. children were not participating in confrontations and were simply going about their days when they were exposed.
The investigation reported that, in one case, a tear gas canister rolled under a family car. In other cases, the affected children were at home when the chemicals reached them.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the agency does not target children.. “DHS does NOT target children,” the spokesperson said in a written statement.. The spokesperson also said officers’ actions were justified in instances where DHS believed there were dangers involving “rioters.”
“We remind the public that rioting is dangerous.. Obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime and assaulting law enforcement is a federal crime and felony,” the statement said.. “DHS is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.”
The DHS response did not directly address how tear gas and pepper spray may affect bystanders, including children.
Journalists pursuing the issue encountered another barrier to accountability: the lack of a system that consistently tracks every use of tear gas or pepper spray by law enforcement officers.. There is no single entity that records each instance nationally. and there is no general requirement to identify or follow up with people who may have been harmed.. Reporting also found there is limited research on long-term consequences of exposure to these chemicals.
To understand what exposure can do to a young person, the investigation turned to Mauldin, using the Civil Rights Movement as a point of comparison. He described the immediate sensations of the bridge attack as the police began beating people around him and then turned to tear gas.
“I’ll never forget the sound of his head being cracked,” Mauldin said of Lewis, recalling that Lewis was struck over the head with a club.
Then troopers turned to tear gas. “What tear gas does, it makes your skin burn, it forces you to run away from it — it makes your lungs seem to implode,” he said.
Mauldin said he crouched low to the ground and then ran toward the river, eventually making his way back to Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church. “There was ‘nothing to do unless you can escape it,’ Mauldin said. “It’s a pretty harrowing experience, especially for kids.”
In the years after the march, Mauldin was diagnosed with asthma. No research cited in the reporting shows tear gas directly causes asthma, but an expert on tear gas and lung injury said it is technically possible because the chemicals can damage the lungs.
Sven Jordt. a professor at Duke University School of Medicine who studies tear gas. told Misryoum that it is possible the chemicals contributed to injury leading to asthma in some circumstances.. The investigation also included court declarations in which a parent described lingering respiratory impacts after exposure. including “chronic respiratory issues” and the need for an inhaler after months of breathing in tear gas that had seeped into their home.. The family lives near an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, where federal officers routinely shot chemical munitions at protesters.
Other parents described similar struggles after nearby tear gas use.. One mother living near an ICE facility in Broadview. Illinois. told reporters she had taken her 7-year-old daughter to urgent care about five times since last fall. after officers repeatedly used tear gas against protesters.. She said the child complained about her throat and “gets to the point she can’t breathe.”
For Mauldin, the physical memory is one part of the story, and the emotional toll is another. He said he is the last living person from the front of the line at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965.
Experts interviewed in connection with the issue emphasized that children who are recently tear-gassed or pepper-sprayed may need mental health support even when they were not directly injured.. That includes children who witnessed harm, said Dr.. Sarita Chung of Boston Children’s Hospital, who studies pediatric disaster preparedness and response.
“Without support, this could be a lifelong burden,” Chung said.
At first, children may struggle with sleep or eating, or have difficulty concentrating after traumatic events, said Dr.. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.. He said reactions can fade for some over time, but the core event can stay with a child long after.. “Some of them will remember this for a very, very, very long time.”
Mauldin said he only recently began sharing his experience in detail about what happened at the bridge. an episode of police violence that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” He said processing the trauma took time. including visits to the bridge with historians who helped him open memories and emotions he had suppressed.
“If you don’t realize it, and you don’t get help with it … it’ll limit your experience to grow and be the best that you can be,” Mauldin said. “You have to be able to kill a part of yourself to be able to sustain that trauma.”
Selma march John Lewis tear gas ICE deportation policy children harmed