Republicans Support DNA Testing Of Adult Immigrants With Children

Republican senators are urging the reinstatement of DNA testing at the nation’s southern border to ensure that children are actually with family members as they cross into the U.S. This is part of the overall push to control human trafficking.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is the primary supporter of the End Child Trafficking Now Act and has garnered assistance from within the party. 

The measure would require every illegal migrant at the border to prove their relationship with accompanying children. 

Any adults who refuse to take the DNA test must be deported by the Department of Homeland Security within 60 days.

In addition, adults who lie to officials about their family ties with accompanying children would face a maximum of 10 years in prison. And if the minors remain in the U.S., the DHS would classify them as unaccompanied alien children and locate their next of kin.

Blackburn told the Washington Examiner that estimates show that 30% of children accompanied by adults at the southern border are being trafficked. She explained that cartels use a system called “child recycling.”

This disturbing process pairs a child with a cartel member to gain easier entry into the country. Once the criminal is across the border, the child is sent back to Mexico and the cartel member is securely within the U.S.

According to Blackburn, the DNA testing process would take about 45 minutes and confirm whether the child belongs with the adult. She told Newsmax that the Biden administration decided to cancel the tests.

This, Blackburn declared, is just another example of the White House searching for “ways to make the illegal legal.”

But by throwing the border wide open, the Biden administration made it necessary to enact such safeguards, according to the Republican senator. She and her colleagues are determined to “continue to raise these issues of the humanitarian crisis” and the danger it presents.

She called the dire situation a “matter of life and death” for the kids. She said her proposal is designed to keep them out of trafficking, labor gangs, or being used as drug mules for the cartels.

The proposal would make child recycling a crime, as there is currently no criminal penalty for the practice. Blackburn said that as she has worked on the issue she has heard from Border Patrol about the need to enhance protections for migrant children.