While the immigration reform being considered in the Senate could lead to the hiring of more border patrol officers, a new exposé has raised concerns about the thousands of employees hired by Customs and Border Protection over the past six years.
After the U.S. Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, implemented mandatory polygraph tests for all applicants six months ago, it weeded out numerous applicants with astonishing crimes, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting. In many instances, applicants made it through the entire hiring process until the polygraph test, where they often admitted to crimes such as rape, molestation, drug trafficking and more.
A new polygraph requirement was only recently implemented by U.S. Border Patrol after a significant hiring surge beginning in 2006 that added 17,000 employees, which made it the largest law enforcement agency in the country.
In the documents obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting, one of the applicants admitted during a polygraph exam that he was the driver of an automobile that killed someone, and is now facing a second-degree murder charge.
“You ought to know up front that you’re not going to get the job if you’ve murdered someone. In fact, you might get prosecuted,” said Barry Cushman, president of the American Polygraph Association, in the Center for Investigative Reporting article. “Good people do stupid things sometimes. Very bad things. And it eats away at them.”
Ten applicants were believed to have links to organized crime and received specialized training on how to overcome the polygraph exam, according to Customs and Border Protection.
The agency said it has performed polygraphs since 2008 to more than 15,000 people, with 60 percent not passing the examination. However, it wasn’t until now that the agency required all job applicants to take the test. Since 2006, misconduct allegations have increased by 62 percent according to a GAO report.
Yet the Customs and Border Protection’s internal affairs have found similar results. It conducted a study in 2010 that found 56 percent of about 300 applicants who were considered suitable to be hired were disqualified after taking a polygraph test.
