DHS workers faced polygraphs, forced reassignments under Trump, officials say

Stephen Miller described as driving DHS immigration policy, officials say

The Guardian’s investigation, based on interviews with more than three dozen current and former DHS officials conducted over the past four months, describes a coordinated campaign to sideline career staff who raised concerns about possibly illegal acts. Officials said Trump loyalists in senior positions threatened termination or arrest to stop dissent, and several said they were subjected to polygraph examinations administered by U.S. Air Force personnel.

Harun Ahmed, a former deputy chief in the refugee affairs law division at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) who served in government for nearly 17 years, said career officials were pressured to support policies they believed violated the law. “They wanted employees to sign off on efforts even when we believed they were immoral, illegal or ahistorical,” Ahmed told the Guardian. “It didn’t matter what our expertise was. They wanted our blessing.”

Ahmed said he accepted a buyout offered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, because he saw no other path forward. “I took it reluctantly,” he said. “Not because it’s what I wanted, but because I didn’t see another path forward.”

Multiple current and former officials told the Guardian they had witnessed or personally been subjected to polygraph examinations, which they said were used as a tool of intimidation. The officials said the few individuals who administered their polygraphs identified themselves as Air Force personnel. The Air Force communications department declined to address the substance of the questions, referring the Guardian to DHS, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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. Some examinations lasted as long as six hours. Several employees were required to return for additional sessions. One former official recalled being read Miranda rights before questioning, which the official said strongly implied that they were going to be arrested. “Miranda warnings are only for criminal investigations and prosecutions,” the official said. “There is no civil or employment context for being read your rights.”

The polygraph tests were ostensibly prompted by unspecified concerns about security clearances. None of the former officials said they were shown the underlying allegations or given an opportunity to respond before being ordered to appear. All said they believed the justification was fabricated.

Officials were also ordered to report to offices in different parts of the country, often in roles for which they had no experience. Employees were given only days to decide whether to accept the reassignment, the Guardian found. Some resigned. Others accepted buyouts. A few remained.

Ron Rosenberg, a former senior executive service leader at USCIS who spent more than 26 years in federal service and earned a presidential rank award under the Biden administration, said political appointees repeatedly tried to push him out during Trump’s first term. But he said the second Trump administration was fundamentally different. “If the first one was bad, the second one was like lighting a canister of jet fuel on day one,” Rosenberg said. “There were no filters, no constraints. They were going to move as fast and hard as possible.”

Under Noem, the department halted nearly all refugee resettlement while fast-tracking admissions for white South Africans. It resumed family separation, expanded transfers of deportation to third countries, sent some immigrants to El Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison, and began using Guantánamo Bay as an immigration detention facility, a move a federal judge found “impermissibly punitive.”

The department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) was functionally gutted, the Guardian reported. More than 100 staff were fired in March 2025, and roughly 600 civil rights investigations were frozen. Though a federal court later ordered DHS to keep the office open, a court review found that fewer than 40 people are working; out of nearly 6,000 complaints it received, it directly investigated only 183.

Shalyn Fluharty, an attorney representing Wendy Hernández Reyes, whose three-year-old son Orlín was killed by his uncle after she was deported to Honduras, said the gutting of the CRCL office has made it impossible to file complaints. “Even the soft tissue, the longstanding relationships within the department, so someone can pick up the phone and call the right person,” Fluharty said. “I am aware of many children in this moment who are in unsafe situations because of our government’s actions. This case is not an anomaly.”

Trump fired Noem in March 2026 amid bipartisan backlash following the killings of two American citizens by federal immigration agents in Minnesota and scrutiny over a $200 million taxpayer-funded advertising campaign. The Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin as the new secretary in a 54-45 vote. Mullin pledged to bring a steadier hand, but multiple current employees said nothing of substance has changed. Several officials pointed to Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff for policy, as the person who continues to set the department’s direction.

“As long as Stephen Miller is at the White House, he is the secretary,” said one current official who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. “Mullin doesn’t get to make the calls.”

The Guardian submitted detailed questions to DHS and did not receive a response before publication.