Customs And Border Protection

An Active Denial System, a flat square antenna mounted on the back of a tan eight-wheeled armored military truck, parked on sandy desert ground with a blue ladder propped against its side under a clear sky.

The Pentagon Is Lending Border Officials One Heat-Ray Weapon for Seven Months. In Two Decades It Has Never Been Used in Combat.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized a seven-month "temporary loan" of one Active Denial System, a millimeter-wave crowd-control weapon, to the Department of Homeland Security to test and develop tactics for possible use at the southern border, CNN reported on 21 October. Pentagon personnel may not operate it. Nothing has been deployed, and DHS's request did not say where or how it would be tested.

By Alison Acosta 8 hours ago

Stacks of shipping containers from several lines at a container terminal in the Port of Los Angeles, with blue ship-to-shore cranes against a pink and blue evening sky.

The Numbers

Customs Took In $333 Billion in Fiscal 2026. Refunds Sent About $147 Billion Back Out.

The fiscal year closed on Wednesday with a record $332.6 billion of customs deposits, according to the Treasury's daily cash statement. It also closed with $157.8 billion paid out through Customs and Border Protection, against about $10.5 billion in each of the two previous years. Net of those payments, the border raised less than it did in fiscal 2025. Since May, it has paid out $17.5 billion more than it took in.

By Cory Chamberlain October 4, 2026

Customs And Border Protection

Tagged stories

The Pentagon Is Lending Border Officials One Heat-Ray Weapon for Seven Months. In Two Decades It Has Never Been Used in Combat.

Customs Took In $333 Billion in Fiscal 2026. Refunds Sent About $147 Billion Back Out.