US using DNA tests to reunite migrant kids and parents

WASHINGTON: US officials have resorted to DNA testing on up to 3,000 detained children who remain separated from their migrant parents, a top official said as President Donald Trump’s administration struggles to rapidly reunite families at the centre of a border crisis.

The controversial procedures are part of government efforts to meet rapidly approaching courtimposed deadlines for reuniting children with their parents, and come as the president himself once again demanded swift action by Congress to fix the country’s “insane” immigration laws.

The Department of Health and Human Services is “doing DNA testing to confirm parentage quickly and accurately”, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told reporters on Thursday.

His team said the procedures were “harmless” cheek swabs.

Normally a lastresort means of identifying of migrants – if birth certificates or other documents are unavailable – DNA testing is being used to speed the process to meet a judge’s order to reunite families by July 26, and by next Tuesday for some 100 children under age five.

But Azar portrayed the process as orderly and disputed accusations that the Trump administration has failed to account for some minors.

“HHS knows the identity and location of every minor in the care of our grantees,” he said, adding that authorities were working to reunite children with their parents “as expeditiously as possible”.

Azar said reunited families would remain in custody of the Department of Homeland Security as their cases are adjudicated. — AFP