About two weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, President Trump told then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and White House staffers that "extreme action" was needed to keep migrants from entering the United States at the southern border, and later that day, a shocking suggestion was made, two former officials told The New York Times.
During a meeting with top leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, officials from Customs and Border Protection suggested deploying the Active Denial System, a microwave weapon known as a "heat ray" that was designed by the military to disperse crowds. When its invisible beams hit a person's skin, it feels like it is being burned. The Times notes that the heat ray is rarely used now questions about its effectiveness and whether it's moral to deploy.
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