Trump administration conducting polygraph tests on employees to identify ‘criminal leakers’

The Donald Trump administration is reportedly conducting polygraph tests on government employees to find out who is leaking details about ongoing immigration raids to the media.

CBS News has reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been carrying out these tests for over three weeks now.

It was not immediately clear how many employees have undertaken the lie-detector tests.

This comes after the DHS on Friday (March 7) announced it had identified “criminal leakers” within the department and it was preparing for referring them to the Department of Justice.

“We have identified criminal leakers within DHS and are preparing to refer these perpetrators to the Justice Department for felony prosecutions. These individuals face up to 10 years in federal prison. We will find and root out all leakers. They will face prison time & we will get justice for the American people,” wrote Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on X.

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Polygraph tests were first announced by the DHS on February 18 as the department vowed to rein in leaks to the media.

The DHS earlier warned that filming and publicising these immigration raids amounts to an “accountability measure” because they were not “a spectacle".

“This is our nation’s law enforcement — judicial process. The scales of justice are equally applied to everybody. We want transparency on this. I believe that this is an accountability measure.”

Since January, the White House has ramped up efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and conduct mass deportations.

According to data from the White House, over 50,000 undocumented immigrants have been removed, with a focus on criminals, including killers, rapists, and drug traffickers.

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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), operating under the DHS, has carried out nationwide raids, leading to thousands of arrests.

Last week, Noem announced that more than 20,000 undocumented immigrants were detained in February alone.

Trump’s trade tariffs on Canada and Mexico have led to a crackdown on the movement of illegal immigrants into the US.

For instance, Mexico last month deployed 10,000 troops to its border with the US to curb illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling.

Similarly, Canada has also introduced new measures against fentanyl production and trafficking.

(With inputs from agencies)