Democrat members of the U.S. Senate unanimously moved to block Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN) bill that would require a DNA test to determine the relationship between illegal immigrants and any accompanying children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
Blackburn introduced the End Child Trafficking Now Act last year after the Biden administration ended all DNA familial testing at the border.
The bill would have accomplished the following:
- Require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deport illegal immigrant adults if they refuse a DNA test;
- Mandate a maximum 10-year prison sentence for all illegal immigrant adults who fabricate family ties or guardianship over a minor;
- Criminalize “child recycling,” which happens when the same child is used repeatedly to gain entry by illegal immigrant adults who are neither relatives nor legal guardians; and
- Require the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to process the child as an unaccompanied minor under current law if family ties or legal guardianship cannot be proven with the accompanying adult.
During remarks on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) objected to Blackburn’s bill, calling the legislation’s requirements for DNA testing “burdensome” that would “bring our system for processing lawful travelers to a halt” and “deter legitimate trade and tourism into the United States.”
To this, Blackburn noted that DNA testing is a timely process of 45 minutes and is a crucial tool in helping ensure children that cross the border with an adult are related and not a victim of trafficking.
Blackburn said, “So I would ask my colleagues: Is 45 minutes too much time to take to be sure that a child is secure? We have had 10 million people come to that border. We have had 400,000 of those children. Don’t we want to provide the best for these children and separate them from traffickers?”
Blackburn went on to cite a report from last year showing that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has lost contact with 85,000 migrant children.
“And by the way, HHS has lost track of 85,000 of these children…We do not know if they are dead or alive. We do not know if they are being labor trafficked, sex trafficked. We do not know what is happening. DNA testing is a way to help save some of these children. We should return to this policy,” Blackburn said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
