EXCLUSIVE: Amid Border Patrol recruitment crisis, bill aims to drop polygraph requirement for some applicants
Bill would waive Border Patrol polygraph mandate for some police, military applicants amid hiring crisis
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A bill Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw introduced Friday could streamline Border Patrol's hiring process by eliminating the polygraph requirement for some candidates with law enforcement or military credentials.
"[Border Patrol] are having trouble hiring," Crenshaw told Fox News. "You look at what's happening on the border and what their job is and you wonder why anyone would want to join. And this is just an additional hurdle."
According to a 2017 Associated Press story, 65% of CBP applicants who took a polygraph failed, compared to 36% in the Drug Enforcement Agency, and fewer than 35% in both the U.S. Secret Service and FBI. None of the agencies provided updated failure rates when asked by Fox News. (Ramiro Vargas/Fox News Digital)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Passing a lie detector test has been required for prospective Customs and Border Protection agents for the past decade. But some current and former employees say overly aggressive and unaccountable polygraph examiners are disqualifying more than half of otherwise-qualified candidates.
"It's an interrogation tool," said Crenshaw, who served for a decade in the SEAL Teams. "It's useful for me as an intelligence officer when I want to vet an asset. It is not useful legally. It is thrown out in court. It is not useful for hiring purposes, in my opinion."
About two-thirds of CBP applicants who took a polygraph failed, The Associated Press reported in 2017. The FBI and Secret Service's failure rates were about half that, according to the same report.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}None of the agencies have provided Fox News with more recent statistics, but the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council said CBP's failure rate is currently around 50%.
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Crenshaw's bill would amend the Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010, allowing CBP to waive the polygraph requirement for current, full-time federal, state and local law enforcement officers who meet certain other criteria such as being in good standing with their departments. It would also waive the requirement for some military members with security clearances.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"When you're talking about people who already have clearances, who have already served in law enforcement, who have a good record and just want to be Border Patrol agents, [the polygraph] is a deeply foolish way to hire people," he said.
A 2017 Government Accountability Office report cited the polygraph as one reason it took an average of nine months to hire new agents. The agency has long failed to meet its hiring goals and is facing a surge of retirements in the coming years.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"This should not be a very controversial piece of legislation," Crenshaw said. "It is barely moving the needle, to be honest. I'd rather get rid of polygraphs completely for Border Patrol."
Crenshaw and then-Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona introduced similar legislation in 2019 with the goal of slashing the time required to hire Border Patrol agents, but those bills failed to advance. Crenshaw told Fox News he hopes Democrats will be more willing to support the bill now that former speaker Nancy Pelosi no longer has an "iron fist" on the House.
"But there's there's just Democrats who just don't like working with us because they're Democrats and we're Republicans," he said. "All we can do is try."
Ramiro Vargas and Matt Leach contributed to the accompanying video.