US Senate Republicans introduced a bill this week which requires a mandatory DNA check of migrants with accompanying minors claiming to be families.
The Child Trafficking Now Act bill, introduced by Senators Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa., aims to curb the trafficking of children which migrants use to circumvent US immigration restrictions.
According to a 1997 Flores court settlement, unaccompanied minors caught by customs and immigration agents can be detained for no longer than 20 days. In 2016, a court ruling extended this agreement to children accompanied by adults. This led to migrants attempting to bring minors who often are not their own children, claiming them as family.
The ubiquity of these cases raised growing concerns that the extended Flores agreement contributes to child trafficking and facilitates a ‘catch-and-release’ practice at the border. The immigration loophole reportedly gave birth to the practice of ‘child recycling,’ in which the same minor is repeatedly brought to the border by different unrelated migrants, according to Fox News.
“These children are being used as a ‘passport’ to get across our border, and this needs to stop,” said Ernst in a joint statement published on the Blackburn website. "One way to address this problem is by having DNA testing in place so we can ensure that an unaccompanied minor is actually connected with the person claiming to be their family, and not being used as an innocent pawn to skirt our immigration laws.”
The Blackburn-Ernst bill comes as a companion bill to another introduced by House Republican Lance Gooden last month, the Fox report says. Both bills set a maximum 10-year prison sentence for fraudulent claims of ties to a minor.
“It is horrifying that children are becoming victims of trafficking at our southern border,” Blackburn said in the joint statement. “By confirming a familial connection between an alien and an accompanying minor, we can determine whether the child was brought across the border by an adult with nefarious intentions. The current crisis at our border is multifaceted and requires a holistic approach. By tackling these problems piece by piece, we will get this situation under control.”
This year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted limited DNA testing as part of a pilot program. Out of 84 cases investigated, 16 were proven fraudulent, according to Fox News.
Speaking at a House hearing in July, acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan cited a particularly eyebrow-raising child trafficking case that was prevented by the mere threat of a DNA test.
“We’ve had egregious cases, including a 51-year-old man who bought a 6-month-old child for $80 in Guatemala and admitted that when confronted with a DNA test by a Homeland Security Investigations agent conducting a pilot at one of our border stations,” McAleenan told lawmakers, asserting that more than 5,500 fraudulent asylum claims had reportedly been uncovered since March by his department.
