U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI-06) and his subcommittee have opened an investigation into the Biden administration’s decision to end familial DNA testing at the U.S. Mexico border.
DNA testing is a key tool used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to prevent fraudulent entry of migrants posing as family members — critical in targeting child trafficking, according to security officials.
Grothman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs, sent a letter Thursday to Troy Miller, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protections seeking answers to the CBP’s decision to cease the DNA testing on Wednesday.
“To assist the Subcommittee in understanding how CBP intends to ensure the safety of vulnerable children at risk of being exploited or trafficked, we request CBP provide documents and information, as well as a staff-level briefing,” the letter states.
The agency has contracted with BODE Technologies since 2019 to perform rapid DNA testing to confirm “claimed family family unit relationships.”
Grothman and his fellow subcommittee members — including U.S. Representatives Andy Biggs (R-AZ-), Pete Sessions (R-TX-17), and Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) — assert “the crisis at our southern border has reached an untenable situation.” More than 2.76 million illegal immigrants crossed the U.S.-Mexican border in fiscal year 2022, according to Customs and Border Protection data. In the first seven months of the current fiscal year, the U.S. Border Patrol recorded more than 1.2 million encounters will illegal border crossers.
“Such policies have aided and empowered the cartels in their human trafficking efforts, which is particularly alarming given that 27 percent of human trafficking victims are children,” the lawmakers write. “Children are subject to abhorrent conditions in their journey to the U.S. border, as recent studies have found that nearly 60 percent of unaccompanied minors crossing the border are forced into child pornography and drug trafficking by the cartels.”
The Trump administration began performing familial DNA testing on some family units to ensure the safety and security of minors and prevent them from being exploited by adults.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (OIG), from June 2019 to September 2021, 8.5 percent of all rapid DNA tests came back as “negative for claimed parent-child relationships,” according to a letter from Republican senators to Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Some reports have found that as many as 3 in 10 children share no familial relation whatsoever.
In fiscal year 2019, CBP noted that “Board Patrol agents identified more than 6,200 fraudulent family members.” The Trump administration had argued illegal migrants with “fake” young relatives were gaming the system to enter the United States.
The problem has only been exacerbated by the failure to keep track of the migrant children pouring into the United States, many suffering at the hands of abusers.
Last month, Grothman led a congressional hearing seeking answers on how the Biden administration could lose track of more than 85,000 unaccompanied children it allowed to illegally enter the U.S.
Robin Dunn Marcos, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, had a hard time answering basic questions, highlighting the administrative nightmare behind President Joe Biden’s disastrous border policies.
Grothman noted a report from the Florida Department of Children and Family Services, in which agents interviewed unaccompanied children who were eventually connected with sponsor families by the Biden administration’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. One child said several members of her group — led by cartel coyotes — were attacked, robbed, raped, some murdered, some decapitated. The child disclosed that she was a victim of rape.
“President Biden’s open borders agenda has created a humanitarian crisis that encourages the trafficking of migrant children in the United States,” the Wisconsin congressman said in his opening statements.
Five Republican U.S. senators, led by Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Tom Cotton (R-AK) sent a letter to Mayorkas demanding the DHS secretary continue DNA testing.
“After years of consistent inadequacy in addressing the crisis at the U.S. southern border and unwillingness to protect migrant children from exploitation, the decision to end ‘all familial DNA testing’ will inevitably result in further exploitation of these desperate children,” the senators wrote. “Specifically, it will enable human smuggling and trafficking and will deepen the pockets of criminal enterprises seeking to traumatize and take advantage of vulnerable families and children. This result is unacceptable and your agency has a responsibility to mitigate and prevent such outcomes.”
Grothman and his subcommittee say it is “alarming” Customs and Border Protection would cease DNA testing.
A CBP official did not return The Star News Network’s request for comment.
The subcommittee as asking the agency to provide:
› An unredacted copy of a May 19, 2023 CBP Memorandum entitled “End of Contract for Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Testing for Suspected Family Unit Fraud”
› All documents and communications within CBP related to the decision not to continue the use of DNA testing for suspected fraudulent family units on or after May 31, 2023
› All documents and communications between any CBP official and any other Department of Homeland Security (DHS) component or DHS headquarters official related to the decision not to continue the use of DNA testing for suspected fraudulent family units on or after May 31, 2023.
They also ask Miller to schedule a briefing with Committee staff as soon as possible, but no later than June 1.They also ask Miller to schedule a briefing with Committee staff by June 1.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Glenn Grothman” by Leah Herman. Background Photo “Border Wall” by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
