Arabic version: مسؤولو وزارة الأمن الداخلي يبلغون عن اختبارات كشف كذب لمدة ست ساعات ونقل قسري للموظفين
Federal officials who were tasked with implementing the Trump administration’s “mass deportation” program have described an internal campaign of intimidation inside the Department of Homeland Security, a Guardian investigation found.
According to The Guardian, more than three dozen current and former DHS officials told reporters that Trump loyalists in senior positions sidelined or removed career staff who raised legal or ethical concerns, threatened termination or arrest to suppress dissent, and used polygraph examinations administered by personnel who identified themselves as air force staff.
Officials described sweeping structural changes at DHS: entire offices were dismantled and oversight bodies stripped of staff and authority. Divisions responsible for refugee policy, asylum, humanitarian protections and family unity were among the hardest hit. Several former career staff said they were pressured to endorse policies they believed were immoral or illegal; one former deputy chief in the refugee affairs law division, Harun Ahmed, told the Guardian he accepted a buyout offered by the so‑called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) led by Elon Musk because he saw no other way forward. Ahmed is quoted saying, “I wanted to work with refugees,” and that leadership wanted employees to sign off on efforts they believed violated the purpose of the system.
Multiple officials recounted extreme polygraph procedures used as a tool of intimidation rather than routine security review. Some examinations lasted up to six hours, used pulse monitors, chest bands, blood‑pressure cuffs and sensors under chairs and floors, and were recorded on video. Several people said they were Mirandized before questioning and were told refusal to submit could cost them their security clearance and their jobs. The Air Force communications department declined to address substantive questions and referred the Guardian to DHS; DHS did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Why this matters: the practices described affected the department units that handle refugees, asylum and family unity and coincided with policies that, under Kristi Noem’s leadership, included more than 675,000 deportations, expanded detention to record levels, halted nearly all refugee resettlement, resumed family separation, and moved some detention to offshore or third‑country facilities — a use of Guantánamo Bay a federal judge called “impermissibly punitive.” Those changes directly impact vulnerable immigrants represented by the affected offices.
What happens next: current and former officials said the practices continued during the leadership transition to Markwayne Mullin, suggesting the reported measures and personnel changes may persist.
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