On the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave remarks at Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, on Saturday to honor the Allied troops who helped liberate Europe during World War II. There, Hegseth warned that modern Europe faces new threats, calling mass immigration into the continent an “invasion.”

“Eighty-two years ago today, the survival of Western civilization hung in the balance. Dark forces had swept across Europe. Hitler boasted that his [coastal defensive] Atlantic Wall was impenetrable. But our enemy made a fatal miscalculation: they underestimated the unbreakable will of the American fighting man,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth continued by saying the lessons of D-Day remain relevant to the US and its allies today.

“As we face an increasingly complex threat environment, we apply the lessons from 82 years ago learned on these beaches: strong allies, each fully committed to doing their part, win wars,” he said. “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.”

He also highlighted the current political and cultural challenges facing Europe, blasting leaders for failing to adequately address the issue of mass immigration.

“Sadly, today different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies,” Hegseth said. “When will European capitals do something about that invasion, or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not.”

Hegseth’s message was yet another plea from the Trump administration for Europe to crack down on mass immigration and take better steps to protect core Western values. Last year, Vice President JD Vance heavily condemned the continent for its soft stances on immigration and free speech at the Munich Security Conference.

Vance recently highlighted the death of 18-year-old British student Henry Nowak, who was killed by a Sikh man with a knife, calling the murder part of civilizational decline and a result of an inability to stop the “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 said on X. “Anything else is an excuse.”