Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved a seven-month loan of a military heat-ray system to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), giving the agency authority to test it as officials discuss potential U.S.-Mexico border use, CNN reported.
The loan began in September, according to the memo CNN obtained. It allows DHS to test the device and develop possible tactics for use at the southern border, but does not identify a test site or set out how any deployment might work. Hegseth's memo bars Department of War (DoW) personnel from operating the system.
The Active Denial System, as the device is formally called, emits an invisible beam of directed energy. The U.S. military characterizes the system as nonlethal and says its intense burning effect is intended to deter. The memo separately describes a tingling sensation lasting 10 to 15 minutes that creates an “instinctive and irresistible urge to run from the effect.”
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials considered the device for crowd dispersal on the southern border, CNN reported, citing sources familiar with the internal discussions. Those sources said the system has never been used there. Former U.S. officials told CNN the device had also been considered during discussions about domestic unrest near the end of Donald Trump’s first term and after George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
Border officials have questioned the system’s legality and the potential harm its use could cause. A former CBP official warned CNN that people being chased toward a river could drown, saying, “you don’t want them to go in and drown.” The official also questioned whether the cost, training and policies needed to use it were worth it.
The Independent reported that U.S. forces took the system to Afghanistan in 2010 but did not use it. A CBP spokesperson said the agency regularly reviews new technologies, including options it says could save lives and strengthen national security.
