Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently issued an internal memo warning all employees that polygraph tests will be used to help crack down on leaks that have reportedly tipped off illegal aliens about planned deportation raids.
Noem and Tom Homan, President Trump's border czar, have blamed such leaks for disrupting planned immigration enforcement operations in Colorado and California over the past month.
"There's a lot of discussion and, to a degree, disagreement about the validity of polygraph evidence, but the very threat of facing a polygraph is likely sufficient to deter people from inappropriately leaking law enforcement sensitive information," comments Art Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies.
"These are significant breaches," he asserts, and they put agents' lives in danger.
"If Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members know that ICE is going to show up at a given place and a given time, those TdA members have two choices. They can either flee to avoid apprehension, or alternatively, they could attempt to inflict harm on the agents themselves," the attorney poses.
Arthur calls it "reprehensible in the highest degree" to subject law enforcement officers to any sort of danger.
According to Homeland Security, the federal government uses the polygraph exam to understand U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) applicants' past behavior, personal connections, and personal integrity.
"Every Border Patrol Agent, Customs and Border Protection Officer, and Air and Marine Operations Agent who has joined CBP has taken, and passed, a Polygraph Exam," the department states.
