The Department of Homeland Security about to start a DNA testing pilot program next week to help in identifying and for legal activities as families in an effort to target human smuggling, two department officials confirmed to CNN.
The pilot program will be conducted for two to three days at two different border locations. US Customs and Border Protection will refer adults they find posing as families to ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for proper investigation.
The rapid DNA test whole process will take on average, in about 90 minutes. The information gleaned from the tests will not be stored by DHS or any other federal agency said the official.
In his recent trip to the Texas border, Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan said migrants are encouraged to come as families because the US has to release children, including those who come along with 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.”
Calling it “unprecedented,” DHS officials said the testing will help in a direct investigation into suspicious family claims.
“This is going to be done on a case-by-case basis,” an agency official told reporters. “Every case is unique and we’re taking a look at all circumstances surrounding the situation in order to make a determination on whether we are going to pursue prosecution or not.”
Vera Eidelman, staff attorney with the ACLU’s speech, privacy, and technology project, said DNA collection is coercive, unwanted, and provides serious privacy and civil liberties concerns.
“This is yet another example of the Trump administration seeking to intimidate and deter asylum seekers,” Eidelman said. “The government claims it does not plan to store or share the information collected from these intrusive and coercive tests for now, but the fact that it is even building out this surveillance infrastructure – using the pretext of the border – should trouble us all.”
President Trump is unhappy 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.”
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