Federal immigration agents released tear gas in Old Irving Park, a Chicago neighborhood, on Oct. 25, 2025, the same day of Old Irving Park's scheduled annual Halloween parade. Numerous local reports and witness testimony in court documents stated the incident happened just minutes before the parade was set to begin, resulting in the parade's cancellation.
The agents were from Border Patrol under Customs and Border Protection, a separate agency from ICE. Both are immigration enforcement agencies under the Department of Homeland Security.
Some claims stated that ICE "tear gassed children." However, it was unclear how close any children were to the tear gas deployment.
As children gathered for Halloween festivities across the country in 2025, a rumor spread online that one such parade had been disrupted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who allegedly deployed tear gas in a Chicago neighborhood.
Posts on Threads, X, Youtube, Facebook and TikTok expressed outrage at the purported incident, with some stating that ICE tear gassed the kids.
Numerous news reports from reputable Chicago newspapers and several different videos from witnesses indicated federal immigration agents released tear gas in Old Irving Park, a Chicago neighborhood, on Oct. 25. A Facebook post dated before the incident from the Old Irving Park Association — a volunteer-led community group — advertised a family-friendly Halloween parade and party on that same day. The nonpartisan association confirmed the tear gassing occurred shortly before its parade in an email to Snopes. Additionally, multiple witnesses corroborated the incident under penalty of perjury and a federal judge admonished a senior Border Patrol official for the incident during a court hearing, based on a transcript we obtained.
While social media posts primarily referred to the federal agents as ICE, video shows they wore Border Patrol uniforms and thus would be under Customs and Border Protection, a different immigration law enforcement agency from ICE. Both are overseen by the Department of Homeland Security and are working as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Given that overwhelming evidence supports the broad strokes of the claim, however, we have rated this claim mostly true.
Eyewitnesses said in court documents and to
In an emailed response to questions explicitly about the incident, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin did not deny that agents deployed tear gas near a children's Halloween parade. According to DHS, deployment of "crowd control measures" occurred during an arrest of a person the agency alleged was a "criminal illegal alien from Mexico, who has previously been arrested for assault."
"During the operations Border Patrol agents were surrounded and boxed in by a group of agitators. Federal law enforcement issued multiple lawful commands and verbal warnings, all of which were ignored," McLaughlin said. "During the operation, two U.S. citizens were arrested for assaulting and impeding a federal officer. To safely clear the area after multiple warnings and the crowd continuing to advance on them, Border Patrol had to deploy crowd control measures."
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, requested on Oct. 30 that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pause immigration raids during Halloween following the tear gas incident. Noem refused his request.
What we know about the incident
The tear gas deployment came amid an ongoing federal court case, in which Chicago journalists and protesters alleged that the federal government has violated their First Amendment rights of peaceful expression and free press through "a pattern of extreme brutality in a concerted and ongoing effort to silence the press and civilians." In response to the complaint, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis issued a temporary restraining order largely prohibiting the use of tear gas and other riot control measures on journalists, protesters and clergy.
In court filings, at least three witnesses described seeing and/or being affected by the gas while under penalty of perjury. A video plaintiffs provided to the court showed agents coming out of a car that hit a person on a bicycle, before agents released gas. Someone appeared to be shouting "gas" repeatedly, but it was unclear whether it was a bystander or an agent. One witness, James Hotchkiss, said he heard an "unusual ruckus" around 9:45 a.m. and then described the tear gassing incident.
"I was really scared. I have two young kids. We were about to walk out of the house to go to a Halloween parade that was supposed to start 15 minutes later and walk down that street. My understanding is that the parade was canceled and activities stayed on the school grounds. My daughter was very upset for most of the morning," Hotchkiss said (on Page 5).
Another witness shared images of discarded tear gas canisters in the neighborhood.
Reporting from Chicago's WFLD-TV also stated federal agents began lobbing tear gas in the Chicago neighborhood around 9:50 a.m. Oct. 25. (Per the Old Irving Park Association, the WFLD reporter, Dane Placko, is a former resident of Old Irving Park and ex-board member of the association.)
The Old Irving Park Association also said in its email to Snopes that "media reports are accurate as to location and time of incident." In a follow-up email, the association clarified that the first message from a neighbor they received about federal immigration agents in the area was at 9:55 a.m.
The Old Irving Park Association's flyer, emailed to Snopes and posted on Facebook, showed that the Halloween event was slated to begin at 10 a.m., with the parade starting at 10:15 a.m. "Costume parade through [Old Irving Park], starting at 10:15am, music & magic show, pumpkin decorating, pizza, and free treats and coffee for all," the Facebook post said.
(Old Irving Park Association)
Illinois' governor said agents detained three people, including two U.S. citizens. In the videos posted online, residents shouted expletives at the agents and told them to leave Chicago. The third witness in court documents, Brian Kolp, stated that while his "neighbors protested vigorously, I never saw any of them do anything violent or threatening to the officers."
Based on reports and witness statements, it appears that at least some parents were under the impression that the event was canceled, but organizers told Snopes the event went on, but instead of the parade winding through the neighborhood, attendees stayed in a single area. The association also sent Snopes an excerpt of a letter it emailed neighbors:
Dear Neighbors,
We'd like to start today's blast with a huge thank you to the OIPA Parents Committee leadership for putting on the much beloved Halloween Parade & Party and pivoting last minute amidst fluid and challenging circumstances. We are grateful the event achieved what is always our goal: connecting our residents to foster our close-knit community, filled with neighbors who care for and look out for one another.
OIPA's mission is to inform and engage on matters affecting quality of life. As a 501c3 organization, we are expressly prohibited from engaging in political action. However, we are committed (and permitted) to share information from our elected officials, allowing individuals to engage in ways that align with their values and priorities.
The reference to sharing information with elected officials presumably referenced posts from local politicians about the incident.
During an Oct. 28 court hearing, Ellis, the judge, admonished Greg Bovino, commander of the Border Patrol's Chicago operation, for his agency's alleged repeated violations of the order and specifically pointed to agents deploying tear gas in Old Irving Park.
Snopes purchased a copy of the hearing transcript via Ellis' official court reporter, Kelly Fitzgerald. We cannot share a link to the
So kids dressed in Halloween costumes, walking to a parade, do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others. They just don't. And you can't use riot control weapons against them. Using riot control weapons -- this is e -- including those described above, at identified targets, if it is reasonably foreseeable that doing so could result in injury to the press, protesters, or religious practitioners who are not posing an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others, unless such force is necessary to stop an immediate and serious threat of physical harm to a person.
Later, Ellis described the Old Irving Park incident in detail:
Q. Okay. All right. And that there -- again, that while the agents were leaving, without any warning, they deployed tear gas and that those agents were masked and did not have any visible identification numbers. So that was Old Irving on Saturday. And that was the instance as well where children were present and they were dressed up in their Halloween costumes and they were walking over to St. Viator's church, which is a grammar school in Chicago, a Catholic grammar school, and that Saturday they were going to have a parade for Halloween. And those kids were tear-gassed on their way to celebrate Halloween in their local school parking lot. And I can only imagine how terrified they were.
The judge then questioned whether Bovino was familiar with Chicago, and he said he has not lived in Chicago but has spent several weeks there. Ellis continued from there:
Q. Okay. So you may not then be familiar with all the different neighborhoods in Chicago.
A. That's correct, yes, ma'am.
Q. Okay. So Old Irving Park is a fairly quiet neighborhood and a lot of families in that neighborhood. A lot of single family homes. And these kids, you can imagine their sense of safety was shattered on Saturday. And it's going to take a long time for that to come back, if ever. And not only was their sense of safety shattered, but it's connected to something that should have been a really happy day. They were getting to go to a Halloween parade on a Saturday and see their friends and be all dressed up and get candy. And I don't know if you have kids, but, you know, kids love Halloween. It's a day where, you know, kind of all the rules go out the window. You can eat as much candy as you want, and it's a fun day for them. And they were getting to celebrate Halloween early at school. And that is why -- one of the reasons why I'm having you in today, is to ensure that as you go about enforcing the law, that it's done in a manner that is objectively reasonable and consistent with your obligations and the agents under you with the Fourth Amendment and the First Amendment, so that kids in Little Village can feel safe walking to the store or walking to school and not worried about getting tear-gassed and not be terrified where they live.
Snopes' review of the 51-page transcript determined that Bovino did not deny the incident occurred during the hearing. Additional court documents filed by plaintiffs describing the Old Irving Park incident accused Border Patrol agents of not providing "any audible warning" before deploying the gas (Page 2).
It is worth noting, however, that no final ruling has been made in this case as of this writing. On Oct. 31, an appeals court paused an order from Ellis that would have required him to meet in person with the judge daily amid the reported violations of her restraining order.
In sum …
It is demonstrably true that Border Patrol agents — not ICE — deployed tear gas in a Chicago neighborhood ahead of a children's Halloween parade, thus disrupting the event, per videos from multiple angles, eyewitness testimony, court documents and the organization that put on the parade. However, many details remain unknown, including whether any children suffered immediate physical effects from the tear gas, how close children were to the tear gas deployment and whether organizers rescheduled or canceled the event.