Biden’s Decision to End DNA Testing at Border Comes Back to Haunt Him

A new report out from the Center for Immigration Studies, a leading immigration think tank, has revealed that the United States now has a record 13.7 million illegal immigrants. Of that number, a minimum of 3.7 million, or 27 percent, have entered the country just since Biden took office four years ago. By other estimates, the numbers are even higher.

Of all Biden’s policies that have enabled this unprecedented surge of illegal border crossings, the president’s decision to end DNA testing at the border may be one of the most consequential. Along with hampering the ability of law enforcement to detect fraudulent asylum claims, it has also given free rein to human traffickers to continue their victimization of migrant children.

When former President Donald Trump was in office, he pioneered efforts to use DNA testing to combat the practice of human smugglers pairing unaccompanied minors with single adults to exploit loopholes in immigration law that give preference to family units. Using new rapid DNA test kits, border authorities were able to determine in about 90 minutes if children traveling with adults were truly related to them.

Children paired with strangers to cross the border are often subject to horrific abuse, and many are trafficked once they enter the country. As The New York Times reported last year, many migrant children who cross the border without their biological parents end up working dangerous jobs for low pay. Others become victims of sexual exploitation.

In an initial three-day trial run for DNA testing during the Trump administration, nearly 30 percent of adults tested were crossing the border with someone else’s children, using doctored identifications. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), from April to June 2019, they identified “275 fraudulent families, uncovered 735 fraudulent documents or claims, and presented 553 individuals for prosecution to the Department of Justice.”

The stories of abuse and victimization uncovered by the program were truly horrifying. As former Trump Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan testified before Congress in 2019, in one case a 51-year-old man bought a child in Guatemala for $80 and then took him to the border to pass off as his son. DNA testing exposed the fraud and saved the child from further abuse.

Upon review of the program’s effectiveness, the Trump administration immediately sought to expand it to all border crossers, permitting DHS to request biometrics from immigrants regardless of age or nature of arrival. Under the proposed plan, in addition to identifying potential trafficking victims, DNA collected would be submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, also known as CODIS. This comprehensive index allows law enforcement agencies at every level of government to identify known criminals.

However, instead of viewing the DNA testing program as a success, the corporate media and elected Democrats vehemently opposed it. For reasons that defy comprehension, when Biden took office, he quickly scuttled Trump’s plans to expand the program, with DHS announcing that it would immediately halt all efforts to “expand the collection of biometric data, including DNA samples,” even for verifying family relationships and identifying criminals.

According to Biden’s DHS, the decision was made as an explicit and “consistent” result of Biden’s February 2, 2021 Executive Order. In that decree, Biden called on agencies to improve the “naturalization” process by “eliminating barriers” – including, critically, reducing “fingerprinting, background and security checks.”

In other words, Biden explicitly halted the expansion of DNA testing, thereby allowing more people to abuse the asylum system and enter the country illegally.

Then, in June of last year, Biden inexplicably ended all DNA testing of family units at the border, opening the floodgates for a surge of child trafficking and fraudulent asylum claims. As reasoning for the decision, the administration only said that the government’s contract with the DNA testing company had expired, and they were choosing not to renew it.

In response, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced the End Child Trafficking Now Act, which would have required DHS to deport illegal alien adults who refuse to submit to a DNA test, mandated a maximum 10-year prison sentence to those claiming fabricated family ties to a minor, and criminalized “child recycling.” However, Senate Democrats have so far blocked any consideration of the legislation.

While Biden faced plenty of backlash over his decision to end DNA testing last year, pressure has only continued to mount as the border crisis has deepened. In March, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) acting Commissioner Troy Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas citing whistleblower claims about DNA collection practices.

“Given the record number of illegal crossings, CBP encounters, and ICE detainees with prior criminal records, CBP and DHS’s continued failure to collect DNA on illegal immigrants is deeply concerning,” Grassley wrote. “This failure weakens our justice system and empowers criminals to illegally cross our border, jeopardizing American lives.”

With immigration shaping up to be one of the defining issues of the 2024 campaign, there are no shortage of Biden policies that will come back to haunt the president in his re-election bid. But Biden’s actions on DNA testing may be some of the most difficult to justify to voters.

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.