DJH,

Thank you for sharing this. I very much regret your son's experience. It's an all-too-common one: CBP has a pre-employment polygraph failure rate on the order of 70%, and it's clear that many truthful, well-qualified applicants like your son are being falsely branded as liars and blacklisted from CBP employment.

Your son will want to contest the polygrapher's false accusation of deception in writing. His letter will confirm that he didn't, through silence, tacitly accept the outcome.

I don't agree with you that the polygraph should be used as a backup to the background investigation. It's junk science and it shouldn't be used at all.

You and your son will find our free book, The Lie Behind the Lie Detector, of interest. It exposes the trickery (not science) on which polygraphy depends and documents the sorts of harm that misplaced reliance on this pseudoscience is causing to national security, public safety, and individuals. It also provides tips for mitigating the risk of a false positive outcome.

If you'd like to discuss your son's situation or polygraph matters more generally, please feel free to contact me.