By Melanie Zanona
May 17, 2017


A Senate panel approved legislation on Wednesday that would allow certain border patrol applicants to skip out on lie detector test requirements.

In a 9-2 vote, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee backed the amended bill, which would waive duplicative Customs and Border Protection (CBP) polygraph hiring requirements for applicants who have qualifying law enforcement or military experience. 

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), is part of an effort to help CBP hire more border agents and staff the nation’s ports of entry. The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Homeland Security panel.

The measure comes as President Trump has called for hiring thousands more border agents in order to enforce his crackdown on immigration and drug smuggling.

But CBP is facing a major staffing shortfall, with 1,700 border patrol agent positions and 1,000 CBP officer positions unfilled at the agency. 

Some have blamed the way lie detector tests are administered at the CBP, which has seen failure rates far higher than any other government agency that requires polygraphs for its employees.

Since 2013, all applicants for law enforcement positions at CBP have been required to pass a polygraph test. But only about 1 percent of applicants end up successfully being hired, according to Flake’s office.

Flake hopes to help ease the pre-employment screening process for certain law enforcement officers and military veterans. 

“At a time when Arizonans are rightfully demanding a secure border, it’s unjustifiable to be turning away qualified applicants with distinguished military and law enforcement service because of a potentially flawed polygraph,” Flake said in a statement.


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