Fox News guest defended tear gas use at US-Mexico border

Ron
Colburn, president of the Border Patrol Foundation and former
Border Patrol deputy.

Fox
News/Twitter

• Ron Colburn, president of the Border Patrol Foundation,
  defended the use of tear gas on migrants at the US-Mexico border
  on Monday. 
• He said the tear gas was “natural” and said “you could
  actually put it on your nachos and eat it.”
• Videos and photos posted to social media on Sunday showed US
  border authorities firing tear gas at migrants at the border
  near San Ysidro, California.

A “Fox and Friends” guest downplayed the use of tear gas against
migrants at the US-Mexico border on Monday, saying that the spray
is “natural” and could be put on nachos.

President of the Border Patrol Foundation and former Border
Patrol deputy, Ron Colburn, said that using tear gas against the
migrants on Sunday was “absolutely” warranted.

“To clarify, the type of deterrent being used is OC pepper
spray,” Colburn told “Fox and Friends” co-host Steve Doocy. “It’s
literally water, pepper with a small amount of alcohol for
evaporation purposes. It’s natural. You could actually put it on
your nachos and eat it. So it’s a good way of deterring people
without long-term harm.”

Oleoresin Capsicum spray, also known as OC pepper spray, contains
an oily resin derived from chili peppers at a
high concentration, according to Medical News
Today.

A
report from The
International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations
(INCLO) and Physicians for Human
Rights found that OC sprays may contain toxic
chemicals that make its side affects harder to treat.

Colburn wasn’t questioned about his claim, as Doocy continued to
speak about the tear gas.

“It looks like [Mexican officials] are trying to review videotape
and figure out who some of these people were who stormed the
border and they’re going to deport them back to their country of
origin,” Doocy said.

Read more:

US reopens portion of Mexico border it shut down after firing
tear gas at migrants when some stormed the port of entry

The migrants attempting to enter the United States are members of
the so-called migrant caravan, which President Donald Trump
criticized in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections.

Trump has sent thousands of US troops to the border in an attempt
to block the migrants from entering the United States.

Videos and photos posted to social media on Sunday showed US
border authorities firing tear gas at members of the migrant
caravan after the group left a makeshift shelter in Tijuana to
head for San Ysidro, the largest
port of entry on the southern US border.