Thread: Trump Administration To Start DNA Testing Families At The Border

The Trump Administration Is Going To Start DNA Testing Families At The Border

The rapid DNA testing pilot program is expected to launch next week at two locations along the US-Mexico border.

Adolfo Flores BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on May 1, 2019, at 12:23 a.m. ET

The Department of Homeland Security is expected to launch a DNA testing pilot program at the southern border next week to identify and prosecute immigrants posing as families, an agency official with knowledge of the program told BuzzFeed News.

The pilot program, which was first reported by CNN, will be rolled out for two to three days at two border locations. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will refer adults they find posing as families to ICE's Homeland Security Investigations for possible prosecution.

The rapid DNA test involves a cheek swab with results available, on average, in about 90 minutes. The information gleamed from the tests will not be stored by DHS or any other federal agency, said the official.

The testing comes as US immigration authorities grapple with an unprecedented number of families and children arriving at the US-Mexico border, overwhelming facilities that were built to hold single adults from Mexico. In March, more than 53,000 families were apprehended the highest number recorded in a single month since CBP started tracking the figure in 2012.
During a recent trip to the Texas border Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan said migrants are incentivized to come as families because the US has to release children, including those accompanied by parents, from immigration detention within 20 days as part of a court settlement agreement.

"It's very clear that the cartels and smugglers know the weaknesses in our laws," McAleenan said. "They know that family units and unaccompanied children will be released with no consequences for their illegal entry."

In the last year, immigration officials said they've identified about 3,100 people who lied about being part of a family or claimed someone who was over 18 years old was a child.

That number represents 1% of the 256,821 family units apprehended at the southern border during that same period.
President Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with the growing number of families at the US-Mexico border. During a recent Fox News interview, Trump said stopping the separation of families at the border last summer created an incentive.

"The problem is you have ten times more people coming up with their families," Trump said. "It's like Disneyland now. You know, before you'd get separated so people would say let's not go up. Now you don't get separated, so it turned out to be a disincentive."

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...eland-security

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