--- title: "Trump Admin to Blast Immigrants With Heat-Ray Gun" description: "Under Donald Trump, the Pentagon is lending the Department of Homeland Security a \"military-grade heat ray\" to use on the border." date: "2026-10-23" modified: "2026-10-23" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins.md" url: "https://futurism.com/science-energy/trump-admin-dhs-border-heat-ray-weapon" categories: - "Energy" - "Military" - "Science & Energy" --- # Trump Admin to Blast Immigrants With Heat-Ray Gun ![A photo shows immigrants seeking asylum at the United States' southern border.]() *Shutterstock / David Peinado Romero* From [AI surveillance towers]() to [robot dog patrols](), the US-Mexico border has long been a proving ground for high-tech weaponry and security tools. The deployment of [new]() [technological]() [horrors]() only seems to have accelerated under Donald Trump, with a new electromagnetic weapon now rubber-stamped for use along the border wall. According to new reporting [from *CNN*](), the Pentagon has given the Department of Homeland Security the go-ahead on testing and developing operational tactics for a "military-grade heat ray" that can blast targets over a half mile away. The weapon, likened to a kind of microwave gun, creates a horrifying burning feeling in the victim when directed at human skin. Called an "active denial system," the weapon was first deployed by US occupation forces in Afghanistan, but was withdrawn before ever seeing combat. It then caught the eye of officials in charge of [corrections]() and [crowd control](), though it isn't clear if the weapon has ever been used to target individuals on US soil. As the [American Civil Liberties Union wrote]() in 2010 after the Los Angeles County Jail installed an active denial system weapon inside its walls, "there is good evidence from the United States military that it is capable of inflicting not only intolerable pain, but death." It isn't known how it will be used on the US-Mexico border, but *CNN* notes that DHS officials have discussed deploying it on crowds of migrants seeking sanctuary for years at this point. Based on what's been reported, it seems the Pentagon has lent the DHS one heat ray for a term of seven months, with the caveat that Department of Defense officials won't be held accountable for any consequences. As one former DHS official familiar with the weapons told *CNN*, the difference between previous administrations and the current cabal is their brazen attitude toward treating civilian migrants like violent belligerents. "The issue was treating immigrants and citizens like enemy combatants," the DHS official explained. "Thematically, inhumane treatments typically get rejected." **More on Trump administration:** *[Trump's Department of Homeland Security Secretly Ordered Cybersecurity Operatives to Acquire a Voting Machine and Hack It]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()