Why Is Border Patrol Planning to DNA Test Asylum Seekers ? - Pacific Standard
▻https://psmag.com/news/why-is-border-patrol-planning-to-dna-test-asylum-seekers
Next week, at two locations along the United States’ southern border, authorities will begin swabbing the cheeks of migrants and asylum seekers traveling as families to complete DNA tests. The new pilot program, first reported by CNN, seeks to identify what the Department of Homeland Security calls “fraudulent families.” The DNA tests can provide results in as little as 90 minutes.
For months, the Trump administration has claimed that some asylum seekers arriving on the border with children are not actually families, but rather adults traveling with unrelated children. The administration argues that these people hope to take advantage of laws that limit the amount of time children and families can remain in detention.
Why Civil Rights Advocates Are Worried
Some advocates are suspicious of the administration’s motives. In the past, immigration authorities have made fraud claims and separated legitimate parents from their children. Others say that the administration is exaggerating the scale of the problem: According to BuzzFeed News, immigration officials say they have identified 3,100 fraudulent families in the last year—but that represents less than 1 percent of the 256,821 family units apprehended. Some say the number should be even lower, because officials consider a family fraudulent if they believe that a child is not actually under 18 years old. (In the past, immigration authorities have been accused of ignoring evidence that people in adult detention facilities are actually minors.)
Arguing that the DNA tests are unnecessary, the American Civil Liberties Union says the new plan represents another attempt by the administration to “intimidate and deter” asylum seekers. “Forced DNA collection is coercive and intrusive, and it raises serious privacy and civil liberties concerns,” Vera Eidelman, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, writes in a statement sent to Pacific Standard.
Why Civil Rights Advocates Are Worried
Some advocates are suspicious of the administration’s motives. In the past, immigration authorities have made fraud claims and separated legitimate parents from their children. Others say that the administration is exaggerating the scale of the problem: According to BuzzFeed News, immigration officials say they have identified 3,100 fraudulent families in the last year—but that represents less than 1 percent of the 256,821 family units apprehended. Some say the number should be even lower, because officials consider a family fraudulent if they believe that a child is not actually under 18 years old. (In the past, immigration authorities have been accused of ignoring evidence that people in adult detention facilities are actually minors.)
Arguing that the DNA tests are unnecessary, the American Civil Liberties Union says the new plan represents another attempt by the administration to “intimidate and deter” asylum seekers. “Forced DNA collection is coercive and intrusive, and it raises serious privacy and civil liberties concerns,” Vera Eidelman, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, writes in a statement sent to Pacific Standard.