A 90-minute rapid DNA test is responsible for determining a male migrant and baby who arrived together at the Texas border as a family unit earlier this month were not related, according to an official with first-hand knowledge of events surrounding the incident.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched a pilot program with the system for a handful of days at two locations on the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this month to see if the technology could help agents conclusively confirm or deny whether migrants who claim to be related are in fact family.
On May 7, Border Patrol agents based in Hidalgo, Texas, watched 51-year-old Amilcar Guiza-Reyes wade through the Rio Grande with an infant. After the pair arrived on U.S. soil, they were taken into custody and brought back to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas.
Agents learned Guiza-Reyes had been deported in 2013. He was turned over to ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations agents, who believed he may not have been the father of the child.
ICE ordered a DNA test of the pair and the man consented to a cheek swab for the two. The swab was run through a machine, which concluded the two were not related.
The Honduran man admitted the baby’s birth certificate was illegitimate. He was charged in federal court in the Southern District of Texas on May 10 with alien smuggling.
The infant was turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement because the baby is technically an unaccompanied minor.
The DNA tests were conducted for less than one week on suspicious migrant families taken into custody near McAllen and El Paso, Texas.
The Washington Examiner reported in March the Department of Homeland Security and ICE were looking at adopting the rapid testing system. On May 1, Homeland Security announced it would launch a pilot of the program in instances where agents could not verify a family unit’s relationships.
The debut marked the first time DNA testing of any sort has been used at the border. Currently, authorities must use verbal statements and written documents to verify family connections.
