Mullin on heat ray weapon: ‘We’re always evaluating technology on the border’
The Active Denial System has been kicked around by the military for years, so its appearance at the border is a notable step, even if the secretary's answer was characteristically vague. "Always evaluating technology" is the kind of phrase that tells you very little while signaling a lot. I'd want to know a few things he didn't address: who gets to decide when the beam is turned on, what training the operators get, and what the tolerance is for people who don't move away.
There's a real difference between a tool designed to scatter a crowd and one meant to manage families, children, and exhausted migrants. That distinction gets easily lost when the discussion is about capability and protections. The military didn't field this system widely, and that history is worth remembering before anyone treats it as a proven fix.
I don't have a settled verdict here. I'd just like the "evaluating" to happen out in the open, with the results shared before this becomes another piece of border policy that people learn about after the fact. Transparency is the minimum price of giving anyone that kind of power, and that price should be paid regardless of which party is in charge.