Countless Homeland Security (DHS) officials were subjected to "extraordinary" intimidation tactics amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, The Guardian revealed in an explosive investigative report published on Saturday.
After speaking with more than three dozen current and former DHS officials over four months, The Guardian uncovered what is described as an “extraordinary campaign of intimidation” inside the agency, with lengthy and frequent polygraph tests being among the chief tools “of intimidation.”
“At least three former DHS officials described being escorted into small, windowless rooms and connected to polygraph equipment, including a pulse monitor, sensors on the floor under their feet and in the seat of their chair, a blood-pressure cuff and chest bands that measured breathing patterns,” The Guardian’s report reads.
“They were instructed to face a blank wall while the examiner sat behind them. A video camera recorded from the corner. One room contained two-way mirrored glass. Officials said they were warned not to alter their breathing and told that failure to comply could invalidate the results.”
The polygraph tests, some of the officials told The Guardian, were sometimes painful and lasted up to six hours.
“One official recalled the blood-pressure cuff remaining inflated for long stretches, causing her hand to turn bright red,” The Guardian’s report reads. “Another said they felt as though they were suffocating because they were forbidden from taking ‘deep breaths.’”
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one former DHS employee recalled the questions they were asked when undergoing a polygraph test, a test that was described as voluntary but carried with it a “clear” threat of “loss of security clearance and, with it, their job.”
“They encourage you to spill everything, saying that you’ll ‘get through’ the questions if you don’t have anything on your mind,” the ex-DHS employee told The Guardian. “Trivial things from your personal life, from years ago. Then they make you feel like a very immoral person.”