Last month, the Defense Department authorized the loan of a controversial “heat ray” weapons system to the Department of Homeland Security for customs and border enforcement, according to a memo obtained through U.S. government sources. The weapon, described in the memo as an Active Denial System, was approved for use by Customs and Border Projection on September 23rd in response to a request by DHS on July 22nd.
In the memo (see below), a DOD official stressed that only DHS employees may utilize the ADS in the field.
“DHS is solely responsible for system employment, use, and development of tactics, techniques, and procedures. DoW is not responsible for CBP’s field employment. ADS shall not be operated by DoW personnel,” the Defense Department’s September 23rd memo states, referring to the DOD as the Department of War.
The use of a “heat ray” weapon on migrants at the U.S. southern border, or even on American streets, would almost certainly inflame domestic political tensions over the Trump administration’s draconian immigration crackdown.
Reached for comment on the memo, Pentagon and DHS officials have yet to reply with a statement on when the ADS weapon could be deployed for use. Though officials suggested a response could be forthcoming.
“We are working your query,” a DOD spokesman replied.
Asked for her response to the memo, former Trump administration official Olivia Troye, who served as Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser, raised questions about the deployment of a military weapon on American soil and wondered whether safeguards would be put in place to prevent abuses of the technology, namely against migrants at the border or, potentially, U.S. citizens.
“This raises serious red flags for me as someone who worked in the national security community,” said Troye. “We’re talking about putting a military weapon designed to inflict intense pain in the hands of federal law enforcement on U.S. soil. What are we doing here guys?” asked Troye.
The ADS projects an invisible, “long-range, man-sized beam of millimeter waves at a range of 1000 meters,” according to a 2012 training video available on the official website for the United States Marines. That same video referred to the weapon as a non-lethal but effective tool for “crowd control.”
Watch the video here:
This is not the first time Trump administration officials have inquired about the use of an ADS in a civilian environment. In 2020, National Public Radio reported “a military police staff officer asked if the D.C. National Guard had a kind of ‘heat ray’ weapon that might be deployed against demonstrators” in the hours prior to the clearing of Lafayette Square, near the White House, during the George Floyd protests in June of that year.
In 2018, approximately two weeks before the midterm elections of that year, top Trump administration officials, including at DHS, discussed whether the ADS weapon - described as a “heat ray” - should be deployed against migrants who were traveling to the U.S. southern border as part of a “caravan” that had caught the president’s attention at the time. Then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said she would not approve the system’s use for immigration enforcement, according to the Times.
The ADS weapon has been the subject of intense media curiosity over the years. In 2012, Fox News Channel reporter Peter Doocy demonstrated the system and described the sensation of the “heat ray” as akin to being in a bathtub when a hair dryer is dropped into it.
“I imagine that’s what it feels like,” Doocy remarked during his report.
The deployment of military weaponry to combat unlawful migrant entries into the U.S. would mark a severe escalation in Trump administration tactics since the president’s return to office. Critics of the nation’s mass deportation operation from both parties have accused Trump, along with such aides as Stephen Miller and former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, of carrying out a campaign of human rights abuses that have included the killings of migrants and U.S. citizens, the deportation of immigrants to countries not of their origin, as well as along the use of inhumane detention centers for housing detainees.
On Thursday evening, various U.S. news outlets reported an ICE agent had shot a man in New York City. The New York Times reported NYPD officers were not involved in the shooting. The man was taken to a nearby hospital.
Can we test it on Congress please
Unbreakable! We’re going to use a weapon originally designed for the military to be used on American soil on people trying to cross the border. These are people most likely trying to find a better life, not some conquering army.