VERIFY: Report claiming one third of families seeking asylum in US aren't related is misleading
The pilot program found 30% of the migrants tested weren’t actually related to the children they were with. What's left out is that authorities only tested migrants that they already suspected were with children not their own.
A Washington Examiner story reporting on this same pilot program stated the rapid DNA tests were of adult immigrants who were suspected of arriving at the southern border with children other than their own. It stated about 30% of those tested were found to be unrelated to the children they were with.
An ICE official confirmed to VERIFY that there was a pilot program for DNA testing of migrant adults suspected of fraudulently posing as families. The ICE official also confirmed that the number in the Examiner story -- 30% -- was correct.
The official said fraudulent families are already being identified without DNA testing through law enforcement observations, documented evidence or other intelligence by various teams.
ICE officers are trained to identify potential fraud and human trafficking - if they suspect it, the pilot program does DNA testing. Nothing wrong with that. It helps stop REAL cases of trafficking without harrassing legitimate families. Too bad the OP lied.
It just means that ICE is CORRECT 30% of the time they SUSPECT this vile fraud... So this pilot program probably DOES lead to a VERY LARGE NUMBER of stolen, rented or otherwise snatched kids being trafficked.
If it's 30% of a suspected group and ICE turns out to be pretty good at guessing, that might make it 10 or 15% of ALL the kids being dragged across the border...
Should have been doing this YEARS ago.... Don't you agree? Because all this talk about decriminalizing border crossing and getting released IF YOU RENT a kid is what's causing this refugee stream.... Those Dems played directly to the Telemundo audience down in Latin America.. And MILLIONS are probably their trip as we speak...
I'm not reading it that way at all Flac. What I am reading is that WHEN they suspect fraud, they seperate them - and out of that subgroup, 30% are found to have indeed committed that fraud. That also means out of that subgroup - 70% did not commit fraud. What that tells me is, first - the agents who are trained (unlike the politicians supporting 100% seperation) to spot this are doing a pretty good job. What it does NOT say is the 30 percent of all migrants are trafficking kids. It says 30% of those suspected of trafficking (a subgroup) are indeed trafficking.
Secondly, you say "they should have been doing this years ago"...well, the short answer is: they have. I don't know about DNA tests because that is a relatively new technology to use at the border, but they have for years seperated migrants suspected of trafficking or not being related to the kids they have in tow. And - frankly, the Dems you seem to be blaming for this and the public in general, have long supported this practice. No one wants to see child trafficking.
What does kind of bother me is this...(and it should bother you as well):
Separating families without any suspician of trafficking. That policy was NOT undertaken as a means of reducing trafficking, THAT excuse was an after thought. The reasons for seperation were clearly articulated by Trump and members of his Administration and those reasons were to provide deterrence to would be immigrants and asylum seekers.
Transcript: White House Chief Of Staff John Kelly's Interview With NPR
The results of these ongoing policies (which, despite the faux claims made by the right) are a big part what is producing the humanitarian nightmare at the border now and in that sense it is a self made crisis. Look at Border Apprehensions:
They are going up, but they are still not up to the level under Obama and all of it is a far cry from the 90's. So what exactly is causing a "crisis" that is leading to horrendous over crowding, dangerous and unhealthy situations for children and adults and, in fact - abusive practices and what is coming to light as an increasingly
abusive CULTURE within the border security profession?
Funding. Why is not more funding going to increasing the resources needed to more rapidly process these people so that long term detention (much more expensive) is not necessary? It would seem that resources are going to ENFORCEMENT - rounding up, detaining and deporting people, instead of taking care of what is actually going on at the border. This is leading to horrendous, substandard conditions for adults and children that does not bode well. And it is frankly, abuse. Child abuse. It's been in all the news, and it just gets uglier, not better. Forget "enforcement" other than violent criminals, of those within our country until we clean up the crisis at our holding facilities and we create more tolerable policies and FUND them appropriately. The issue of trafficking is not the most urgent one at this moment.
The other thing is the term "decriminalization".
The history of the southern border is interesting. It was not a crime to cross the border until 1929. The US could deport unauthorized immigrants but it didn't prosecute them. In 1929, as a attempt to restrict Mexicans specifically, it became a misdemeanor on the first attempt and a felony on the second attempt. In 1996, Clinton passed much harsher immigration laws that increased the prosecution and detention of illegal immigrants. It wasn't heavily prosecuted until President Bush, which continued under Obama, and rose under Trump, with
his policy of "100% prosecution". And in part - that is why we are where we are here now because those laws form the basis for Trump's policy rationale.
So where has that left us? Forced family seperation, abused and traumatized parents and children, children lost within the system, children warehoused in huge incampments, parents deported without their children.
What is the answer here? There are those who claim that if we have a law it must be prosecuted (100%) but the reality is - they never are. You have finite resources and finite manpower so you make decisions on where to prioritize enforcement. We don't prosecute jaywalking 100% (and those who claim all illegals should be prosecuted are somewhat selective in the crimes they feel should be prosecuted) - but we may enforce it more heavily in areas that are particularly risky, where pedestrian accidents are more common. Likewise with illegal immigration - we prioritize violent crimes, fraud, trafficking for prosecution. Should we completely decriminalize? Probably not. Should we repeal the 1996 laws? Should we alter our policies? Is the status quo at the border detention facilities sustainable in your view?
The other factor is that the current situation is not primarily motivated by "pull factors" - people aren't fleeing El Salvador, Honduras and Guatamala because they want a cushy life on welfare in the US. The fact that the right seeks to promote that is indicative of a systemic attempt to dehumanize migrants (and maybe it makes it easier to promote and support abusive policies?). These illegal immigrants typically come here to work, work mulitple low paying jobs, and tolerate conditions many Americans would not. What's pushing them out is a complex mixture of climate change (there is a multi-year drought in affect covering portions of those countries), severe poverty, political and social violence, and few recourses for the citizens.
What is the solution to the crisis at the border? Not the policies that the current administration has been promoting. At over two years of these policies the situation is worse even though number of border detentions is still well below that of preceding administrations.