Expert says ending DNA testing at the border will result in 'more suffering and exploitation'
WASHINGTON (TND) — The Biden administration is planning to end a rapid DNA testing program at the southern border that ensures migrant families are in fact related.
Former Acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan joined The National Desk’s Dee Dee Gatton to discuss the issue.
“Look, this is unconscionable. Some context here is important, the Flores settlement agreement which I think is the worst lower court judicial decision ever made said that if you come to our borders as a family, we cannot detain you through the entirety of your asylum process,” he said. “This began what we have popularly been coined a phrase, catch and release, meaning if you came to our borders as a family, that was your automatic passport in the United States.”
DNA testing at the southern border was a measure implemented during the Trump era and was used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to prevent the fraudulent entry of migrants presenting themselves as families and mitigating child trafficking.
“It didn't take long for the migrants and the cartels to realize that and exploit what we saw on the Trump administration that fake families were actually being formed, meaning kids minors were actually bought and sold and rented to form these fake families because again, it was their automatic passport in the United States,” Morgan said. “What we did, shows we learned that was to implement this rapid DNA testing, as well as we put additional ICE agents there to conduct interviews and what we saw was an enormous amount of fake families. We were essentially able to shut that down. What this Biden administration has done like so many others, is they've removed every single effective tool. What this is going to result in is more suffering and more exploitation of vital children. Not less. It makes no sense.”