Heat Rays in Hands of Border Patrol? (Not an Onion Article)

I was taken aback by this recent Forbes article and related NYT coverage about a 2018 debate within the Trump Administration about allowing Border Patrol to utilize the military’s Active Denial System (ADS) to thwart unauthorized migration on the Southern border of the United States.

ADS is technology that is mounted on a sturdy vehicle like a tank, humvee, or truck. It emits a targeted beam that is experienced as a heat ray. I’M NOT MAKING ANY OF THIS UP.

Back in 2014, the History channel did a short segment on ADS. I’ll let them show you how it works:

So — upside: non-lethal (though as Forbes reports, maybe not without side effects). Downside: HEAT RAY, begging the question what’s next? An alligator-filled moat?

Apparently when a high-level official floated the idea of using ADS against migrants seeking to cross the Southern border of the U.S. without authorization, Kirstjen Nielsen said “she would not authorize the use of such a device, and that it should never be brought up again in her presence[.]”

Of course, Nielsen is long gone at this point. What will Chad Wolf do?

-KitJ