The Biden administration is running few DNA tests on migrant families encountered at the southern border despite smugglers’ tendency to hide “fake” families in with the legitimate groups.
Border officials are conducting fewer rapid DNA tests among migrant families amid soaring numbers of family arrivals than they did during the 2019 border crisis when the same number of families was being encountered each month, according to Homeland Security data obtained by the Washington Examiner.
More than 52,000 people came across the southern border as part of a family group in March, and no more than a few dozen people took rapid DNA tests to verify the adult and child were related, based on the federal numbers.
The lack of testing comes as Border Patrol agents have begun publicizing discoveries of “fraudulent family units” hidden among the legitimate families. Over the weekend, agents in western Arizona determined a Brazilian man and 8-year-old girl were not related despite the adult claiming to be her father, as well as a teenage girl and an adult woman from Romania who were not mother and daughter.
Data from the Department of Homeland Security revealed that 76 families have undergone rapid DNA tests out of the 92,000 families that have come over the border in the past six months since fiscal 2021 began in October. Three of the 76 families were found to be unrelated. DHS would not break down the data further to show if the majority of tests were administered under the Biden or Trump administrations, though 77,000 families of the 92,000 families apprehended at the border since October crossed after Jan. 1.
During the unprecedented surge of primarily Central American families showing up at the southern border in 2019, the Trump administration allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to implement rapid DNA testing for families it could not confirm were related. In one week of June 2019, ICE ran 102 tests, which found 17 groups to be unrelated. By that standard, more than 400 tests would have been run last month based on the number of family arrivals.
Even though more than 50,000 members of families came across the border in March alone, as was the case in the three months during the 2019 crisis, the Biden administration is showing no indication that it will test people before it releases most into the United States.
Three people familiar with ICE’s testing procedures said the agency has been instructed to prioritize releasing migrant families into the country or expel them to their home countries and only verify family relations through rapid DNA tests when absolutely necessary. ICE agents have been embedded at multiple Border Patrol sites, including the Donna pop-up facility and Weslaco Border Patrol station in South Texas, to test families when necessary.
“They are not doing it unless there is a significant suspicion. This administration wants these families and kids released quickly. That is their No. 1 goal, so they are not going to do anything to slow that process down,” one of the individuals said.
“With the volume, there obviously has to be a priority list of who gets tested since they can’t test everyone,” a second person said.
Families, both in 2019 and now, cannot be held by the government for more than 20 days if they are apprehended coming over the border between land ports of entry. The ports are manned by Customs and Border Protection field operations offices, which is where asylum-seekers are supposed to seek assistance. A 2015 court ruling known as the Flores settlement agreement allows anyone traveling with a child to be released into the U.S. with orders to show up in court, which would be likely years down the road. They may also make asylum claims during that period.
Federal immigration officials assigned to the U.S.-Mexico border began seeing an uptick in unrelated migrants posing as families during early 2019. Border Patrol agents who initially take people into custody would conduct interviews and review identifying documents. Those whose statements or papers did not match up were transferred to ICE’s Homeland Security investigations agents to undergo in-depth interviews. From mid-April through May 31, ICE interviewed 1,126 people and uncovered 422 fraudulent paper documents or fabricated familial relations either by verbal statements or with bogus legal documents they had purchased from smuggling rings. ICE presented 399 cases for prosecution to the Justice Department and has had 315 accepted.
In an effort to verify families more easily, DHS launched a pilot program to do rapid DNA tests in partnership with Colorado-based healthcare technology company, ANDE, for instances in which ICE agents could not conclude an adult and child were related.
The ANDE DNA processing company was able to test families and get results within two hours, compared to the weeks it usually takes local police or federal law enforcement to get results from labs. The inside of a person’s cheek was swabbed, and the sample was inserted into the machine and scanned into an external database that cross-references the tests to see if they are a match. It gives agents a definitive “yes” or “no” answer. In the pilot program, approximately 30% of those tested failed. In some cases, children were used multiple times by traffickers, who sell them to adults and then send them back to Mexico to travel again north over the border with another unrelated adult, ICE officials said in 2019.
“HSI’s use of DNA testing is one tool used by trained investigators from DHS who rely on a myriad of data inputs and their experience to determine whether a group presenting as a family unit presents with indicia of fraud, based on law enforcement observations, documentary evidence, or other intelligence,” ICE said in a statement issued last week to the Washington Examiner. “HSI Special Agents are committed to disrupting and dismantling transnational criminal organizations, with a focus on crimes of exploitation, especially as it relates to victims who are minors.”
The use of those tests sparked controversy as an invasion of the privacy of children. The tests were used significantly less in the tail end of the Trump administration as the rate of families coming across the border dropped to less than 5,000 people per month, far below the 52,000 who came across last month.
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Rapid DNA testing company ANDE told the Washington Examiner that it is not contracted with ICE at this time but expects the government to begin a procurement process in the “near future.” ANDE Chief Operation Officer John Sims expects the Border Patrol and Health and Human Services “to be pursuing the use of rapid DNA for the processing of children” and is awaiting announcements on the availability of contracts.
