Uncovered Email Chain Reveals FBI Has 15-Month Backlog for Migrant DNA Testing
According to a newly uncovered email chain, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has a 15-month-long backlog of DNA testing kits for migrants who illegally crossed the U.S. southern border and were detained by authorities.
According to an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) email chain reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF), the FBI is short on funds to sustain a DNA testing program which provides test kits to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to then administer to detained migrants aged 14 years old and older.
According to the emails obtained by the DCNF, CBP “uses tests from the FBI, which then analyzes and stores them for federal border authorities.” The FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) “enables federal, state, and local forensic laboratories to exchange and compare DNA profiles electronically, thereby linking serial violent crimes to each other and to known offenders,” according to the bureau.
In one email reviewed by the DCNF, a CBP official told a reporter for the Washington Post that the FBI doesn’t “have enough money to run the program which is a statutory requirement. They are still delivering kits and used to turn them around in 2 months, now they are looking at a 15 month backlog.”
DNA testing for migrants above 14 years of age is a requirement under CODIS and allows authorities to cross-reference DNA samples from unsolved crime scenes to prevent criminals from illegally entering the country. In the email chain, however, the CBP official admitted that migrants who aren’t wanted by law enforcement in connection to a crime are released into the U.S. after 72 hours.
“Migrants remain in CBP custody for up to 72 hours. Since the FBI’s DNA analysis has always taken longer than three days, migrants have always [been] released from CBP custody prior to the FBI completing its DNA analysis. Migrants wanted for a crime are transferred to appropriate law enforcement agencies. You may, however, wish to contact ICE to learn whether the current delay in FBI DNA analysis may have impacted ICE’s release of migrants as ICE holds migrants longer than CBP,” part of the email explained.
The officials also admitted to experiencing “some logistical challenges” specifically regarding “supplying enough DNA test kits to particular locations during migrant surges.”
Last year, amid record illegal immigration, a leaked CBP memo obtained by Just the News and reported on by TPUSA, revealed the agency’s plan to end familial DNA testing at the southern border, used to identify false familial claims and potential human trafficking.
In fiscal year 2023, CBP encountered more than 2 million people attempting to enter the U.S. illegally, slightly less than the 2.2 million encounters in FY 2022. Additionally, nearly 250 individuals on the terror watchlist were apprehended along the U.S. southern border in FY 2023 alone.
