Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged European leaders on Saturday to remain vigilant against the threat of what he described as “dangerous ideologies” coming to the continent, invoking the lessons of D-Day to warn about modern-day immigration.   

“In the years since these beaches, much of the West, in some places, in some quarters, and in some capitals grew comfortable, we forgot that freedom is not free,” Hegseth said during remarks at Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.

The Pentagon secretary was in France to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy during WWII, which ultimately enabled the U.S. and its allies to liberate western Europe from Nazi Germany.

“Sadly, today different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies,” Hegseth said, adding that “boats and men” were arriving on the shores of Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria.

“When will European capitals do something about that invasion, or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not,” he continued.

His tone echoed the Trump administration’s sharp criticism of European nations for their handling of migration, which senior officials have argued poses an existential threat to the continent’s survival.  

Vice President JD Vance railed against mass migration in his first major international speech at the Munich Security Conference last February, saying that “no voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.”

Vance, on Friday, blamed the death of an 18-year-old British student by a Sikh man on what he called civilizational decline and the failure to stop a “mass invasion of migrants.”

One of the most important things the Trump administration has proven to the world is that stopping the flow of mass migration and defending national sovereignty is a matter of political will and leadership,” Vance wrote on social platform X. “Anything else is an excuse.”

The Trump administration warned in its 2025 national security strategy that Europe could become “unrecognizable in 20 years or less” if the European Union (EU) allows permissive migration policies to continue.

The EU’s three main institutions —the European Commission, the European Council and European Parliament — reached a deal this week to ramp up deportations and build detention centers abroad, according to The Associated Press, though it quickly faced pushback.

One of the most important things the Trump administration has proven to the world is that stopping the flow of mass migration and defending national sovereignty is a matter of political will and leadership,” Vance wrote on social platform X. “Anything else is an excuse.”

The Trump administration warned in its 2025 national security strategy that Europe could become “unrecognizable in 20 years or less” if the European Union (EU) allows permissive migration policies to continue.

The EU’s three main institutions —the European Commission, the European Council and European Parliament — reached a deal this week to ramp up deportations and build detention centers abroad, according to The Associated Press, though it quickly faced pushback.

“This deal will give governments much broader powers to detain and deport people,” Marta Welander, a spokesperson for the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian organization, told AP.

“It looks set to normalize immigration raids, expand the use of detention in prison-like facilities outside EU territory that are essentially legal black holes, and increase the risk of people being deported to countries where they could face persecution, torture or worse,” Welander added.

Sophie Brams, The Hill