Biden to stop using familial DNA testing for child trafficking detection at southern border.

Biden Administration to End Family DNA Testing at U.S.-Mexico Border

The Biden administration plans to end the family DNA testing system at the U.S.-Mexico border that authorities use to prevent smugglers from trafficking migrant children across the southern border, according to a leaked memo obtained by Just the News.

Details of the Memo

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials were notified that familial DNA contract with BODE Technologies, a DNA testing service contracted with law enforcement and identification markets for over 25 years, will end on May 31, 2023, and all familial DNA testing will conclude on that date.

CBP authorities began implementing the DNA testing program under the Trump administration “following a court order related to the separation of migrant children from their families and evidence drug cartels were using children to create fake family units to sneak illegal immigrants across the border,” according to the outlet.

The memo also noted that familial DNA collection and testing is separate from FBI booking DNA collection, and the end of the BODE contract does not impact or interrupt collections as part of the Combined DNA Index System computer software program that operates national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons.

A spokesperson for CPB did not return requests for comment by The Daily Wire.

ICE’s Rapid DNA Testing Goal

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) awarded BODE Technology a potential five-year contract at $17.3 million in 2020 after the agency identified 11 locations on the southwest border where the influx of immigrants became prevalent.

Derek Benner, ICE HIS executive associate director, said the goal of Rapid DNA testing remained twofold.

1. “First, to protect children from being smuggled across the border by ensuring they are with their parents and not being used as pawns by individuals attempting to exploit immigration loopholes,” Benner said, according to Defense Daily.
2. “Second, to identify and stop the criminal organizations that are generating false documents and supporting child smuggling.”

“It is clear on-site DNA testing has a strong deterrent effect, as HIS agents witnessed multiple instances of individuals confessing to faux families prior to being tested as well,” Benner added.

Concerns Over Misrepresented Family Members

CPB officials have identified smugglers trafficking children across the U.S.-Mexico border over the years, Just the News reported.

“In 2022, a government accountability office report found that as many as 1 in 10 of children tested turned out not to be related to the illegal aliens who were crossing with them.”

The Washington Examiner reported that rapid DNA testing found approximately 30% of immigrant adults with children suspected of crossing the southern border were unrelated.

“There’s been some concern about, ‘Are they stepfathers or adopted fathers?’” an anonymous official told the outlet. “Those were not the case. In these cases, they are misrepresented as family members.”

Leaked Memo Amid Biden’s Decision to End Title 42

The leaked memo surfaces amid President Joe Biden’s decision to end Title 42, a Trump-era public health order that allowed for the immediate expulsion of illegal immigrants, which some have predicted would bring a fresh cascade of illegal migration upward of 13,000 crossings a day.

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