Jim Acosta sounded the alarm on Thursday after a leaked memo revealed the Department of Defense has approved plans to loan a controversial "heat ray" weapon to immigration authorities.
While the exact plans for the weapon remain unknown, Acosta reported on his Substack that it was likely the weapon would be used at the Southern Border, or in "American streets" against protesters.
"The use of a 'heat ray' weapon on migrants at the U.S. southern border, or even on American streets, would almost certainly inflame domestic political tensions over the Trump administration’s draconian immigration crackdown," Acosta wrote.
The memo also alarmed former Trump administration official Olivia Troye.
“This raises serious red flags for me as someone who worked in the national security community,” Troye told Acosta. “We’re talking about putting a military weapon designed to inflict intense pain in the hands of federal law enforcement on U.S. soil. What are we doing here, guys?”
Acosta also warned that the weapon could be used as part of a "severe escalation" from the Trump administration.
"The deployment of military weaponry to combat unlawful migrant entries into the U.S. would mark a severe escalation in Trump administration tactics since the president’s return to office," Acosta wrote. "Critics of the nation’s mass deportation operation from both parties have accused Trump, along with such aides as Stephen Miller and former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, of carrying out a campaign of human rights abuses that have included the killings of migrants and U.S. citizens, the deportation of immigrants to countries not of their origin, as well as along the use of inhumane detention centers for housing detainees."