Department of Homeland Security administering lie detector to employees in an effort to find leakers | Law Enforcement Today

WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Saturday, March 8th, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official confirmed to CBS News that it is administering polygraph tests to its employees in an effort to determine who may be leaking information to the mainstream media about its ongoing immigration raids. 

Back on February 18th, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said that the department would start polygraphing employees in order to crack down on the leaks. On Friday, March 7th, Noem posted a video to X saying, "We have identified criminal leakers within @DHSGov and are preparing to refer these perpetrators to the @DOJ 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."

The DHS spokesperson told CBS News that the polygraph tests have been taking place for about three weeks. It is unclear how many employees have undergone the test.

Fox News reported that Noem said that two people within DHS have been accused of disclosing DHS operations amid the Trump administration's mass-deportation plans. In a video exclusively provided to Fox News, Noem gave an update on the manner She said, "We have identified two leakers on information here at the Department of Homeland Security who have been telling individuals about our operations and putting law enforcement lives in jeopardy."

She added, "We plan to prosecute these two individuals and hold them accountable for what they've done. We're going to continue to do all that we can to keep America safe." The names of the two leakers have not been disclosed. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is under DHS and is tasked with overseeing immigration arrests and deportations in the interior of the United States, has conducted raids across the nation, resulting in thousands of arrests. At the beginning of March, Noem announced that more than 20,000 undocumented immigrants were arrested by ICE during the month of February.

Several other agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration, have been asked to provide personnel to help bolster the deportation operation. 

The Trump administration has lifted a Biden-era policy, which had restricted immigration agents from making immigration arrests near schools, places of worship, and other sensitive locations. In late January, Noem told CBS News that ICE's filming and publicizing of its immigration raids was an "accountability measure."

She said, "It's 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."