Customs and Border Protection personnel — not U.S. troops — used military laser to shoot object near El Paso

U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel — not American service members — shot down an object with a military laser earlier this week near El Paso, Texas, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. Troops with Joint Task Force – Southern Border were not authorized to shoot down drones in the area. The task force — which works hand-in-hand with federal law enforcement and serves as the primary military entity for the U.S.-Mexico border mission — trained CBP personnel on the equipment who used it during the incursion. A source familiar told DefenseScoop that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved the transfer of a military counter-drone system to CBP. Sources did not identify the specific laser system that was used. U.S. Border Patrol falls under CBP. The operation reportedly caused interagency turmoil between the Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration, prompting the latter to issue a 10-day flight restriction that lasted only hours into Wednesday.

The Internal Revenue Service moved forward this week with plans to involuntarily move employees with no direct tax experience to perform customer service and analysis duties for this year’s filing season. According to email notices obtained by FedScoop, multiple IRS employees from the agency’s IT and human capital office were informed Monday that they were assigned to a 120-day involuntary detail to the agency’s Taxpayer Services division, as either a customer service representative or a tax examiner. The detail, effective Feb. 22, could be extended beyond the four-month period, per the notice. Joseph Ziegler, the agency’s chief of internal consulting, stated in the notice that neither position will require direct engagement with taxpayers or answering phones, adding that the tax filing season is the “most important time” of the year for the agency. It is unclear how many employees were affected by the temporary reorganization, but it follows a series of shakeups and losses for the agency.

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