Texas Congressman Wants DNA Testing of Migrant Children at Border

U.S. Representative Lance Gooden (R-TX) reintroduced a bill last week to help reduce migrant “child recycling” to bypass immigration policies and cut down on child-trafficking practices. The bill became necessary after the Biden administration ended a policy put in place by then-President Donald Trump to test the familial relationship between a migrant and a child.

“Every child deserves protection, particularly those most vulnerable,” Congressman Gooden said in a written statement. “The exploitation of underage aliens by human traffickers is one of the most sickening results of the border crisis. This legislation will ensure that young children are no longer viewed as ‘skip the line’ tickets by cartel members.”
The Biden administration quietly canceled CBP contracts for familial DNA testing of migrants and children at the border, NumbersUSA reported. A CBP memo published by Just the News in May revealed.

Just the News reported:

The DNA testing was originally implemented in the Trump-era and utilized by Customs Border Protection – 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.

But over the weekend, a CBP memo sent to frontline border agents announced the testing will cease when its vendor contract expires this month.

“The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) familial DNA contract with BODE Technologies will end on May 31, 2023 and all familial DNA testing will conclude on that date,” the memo reads.

The memo brought DNA testing of migrant children and alleged parents to a close at the end of May.

In March 2019, then DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told a House committee that human smugglers were “recycling” migrant children to facilitate the entry of single adults, Breitbart Texas reported.

“Smugglers and traffickers have caught on that the outdated laws, lack of resources, and bad court decisions effectively give them a free ticket into America,” Secretary Neilsen told the House Homeland Security Committee at the time. “We have encountered recycling rings, where innocent young people are used multiple times to help aliens gain illegal entry. As a nation, we simply cannot stand for this.”

In September 2019, Breitbart Texas reported that HSI agents identified a child being smuggled with two adults falsely claiming to be the child’s parents, according to Del Rio Sector Border Patrol officials. The two adults crossed the border with the small child and claimed to be a family unit. HSI agents conducted an investigation which concluded the adults had no familial relation to the child.

“Of all the people that smugglers exploit, children are the most vulnerable,” then-Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Raul L. Ortiz stated. “Thanks to the cooperative efforts between HSI and Border Patrol, this child was removed from a dangerous situation and properly cared for.”

Then-Border Patrol Chief of Operations Brian Hastings told reporters in a press conference, “From April 2018 through February 2019 we have had almost 2,400 fraudulent claims of families. Of those fraudulent claims, some are people who claim they are under 18 and they’re not. Others have actually been fraudulent familial claims.”

Following the end of the Trump-era DNA testing program, Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center Director Lora Ries told the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 14 that the Biden administration’s decision will lead to more smuggling and trafficking of migrant children at the border, Breitbart’s John Binder reported.

“The Biden administration has also recently made the nonsensical decision to stop using DNA testing of suspected fake families at the border,” Ries told the committee. “The results are very predictable: A return to more child smuggling, child recycling, and child trafficking. Say you’re a family and we’ll take your word for it.”

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced an identical bill in the Senate.

“What we have learned from border patrol is that as many as 30 percent of all the children that arrived at the southern border are being trafficked,” Blackburn explained. “There is no family relationship.”

In addition to the requirement for DHS and Health and Human Services personnel to conduct DNA testing to verify the familial relationship between and adult migrant and the accompanied child, the bill also creates a new federal felony offense titled “Recycling of Minors. The bill mandates a maximum ten-year prison term for migrants who fabricate family ties or guardianship over a minor.

“With this bill, we send a clear message that we are committed to the safety and welfare of children, standing firm against any forms of exploitation,” Gooden concluded.