DHS administering lie detector exams to staff in effort to seek out leakers
The Division of Homeland Safety is administering polygraph exams to its personnel to find out who could also be leaking data to the media about its ongoing immigration raids, an company spokesperson confirmed to CBS Information Saturday.
On Feb. 18, Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem stated DHS would begin polygraphing staff to be able to crack down on these leaks.
In a video posted to social media Friday, Noem wrote that the division had “recognized two leakers of data right here on the Division of Homeland Safety who’ve been telling people about our operations and placing legislation enforcement lives in jeopardy. We plan to prosecute these two people and maintain them accountable for what they’ve accomplished.”
The polygraph exams have been happening for about three weeks, the DHS spokesperson advised CBS Information. It is unclear what number of staff have undergone them.
Since January, the White Home has been aggressive in its efforts to satisfy President Trump’s marketing campaign vow of cracking down on unlawful immigration and enacting mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is below DHS and is tasked with overseeing immigration arrests and deportations within the inside of the nation, has performed raids throughout the nation, leading to hundreds of arrests. Noem introduced final week that greater than 20,000 undocumented immigrants had been arrested by ICE throughout the month of February.
A number of different businesses — together with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration — have been requested to offer personnel to assist bolster this effort.
Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
The Trump administration additionally lifted a Biden-era coverage which had restricted immigration brokers from making immigration arrests close to faculties, locations of worship and different delicate areas. That coverage is dealing with authorized challenges.
In late January, Noem advised CBS Information that ICE’s filming and publicizing of its immigration raids was an “accountability measure.”
“It is not a spectacle,” Noem stated. “That is our nation’s legislation enforcement — judicial course of. The scales of justice are equally utilized to all people. We would like transparency on this. I consider that that is an accountability measure.”
Camilo Montoya-Galvez
contributed to this report.
