The secret police are being offered ray guns. They have already ordered their shock gloves.
The Pentagon has reportedly approved lending a military weapon known as the “heat ray” to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
It fires an invisible beam that heats human skin, causing intense pain.
According to a memo obtained by journalist Jim Acosta, CBP personnel would operate it under their law enforcement authority.
The heat ray is part of a growing technological arsenal being made available to immigration enforcement under Trump.
ICE ordered 6,000 electric shock gloves in August.
ICE has also contracted for portable iris scanners. Agents already use facial recognition software to identify people from photographs taken during encounters.
DHS has contracted for robotic dogs equipped with cameras and sensors. The Pentagon is testing laser weapons and autonomous counter-drone systems along the Mexican border.
ICE has also acquired data-analysis tools to help identify, locate, and track people.
Some technologies have yet to be deployed, but the trend is clear:
Our least accountable quasi-military agency, under White House pressure to make 3,000 arrests daily, is gaining capabilities unimaginable just a few years ago.
The secret police are being offered ray guns. They have already ordered their shock gloves.
Sources
- Jim Acosta: Leaked Pentagon memo on heat-ray loan
- Associated Press: ICE electric-shock glove purchase
- ICE iris-recognition procurement justification
- DHS Mobile Fortify privacy assessment
- CT Insider: DHS robotic dogs
- Reuters: Army border counter-drone testing
- ICE Palantir ImmigrationOS contract
- Reuters: Immigration enforcement targets
