Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said Tuesday Attorney General Jeff Sessions is discussing with Congress the use of DNA tests at the border to confirm biological relationships between immigrant children and their parents.
“Sessions is talking to congressional members and is hoping for a legislative fix,” said Perkins, adding the Justice Department’s aim is to execute “just, fair and enforceable” immigration policies.
“They are looking at how to use DNA tests in the field to verify they are parents and not traffickers, he added. “The reality is if American parents put their kids through what these immigrant parents have done to their kids, they would be charged with child abuse.”
Addressing the White House press corps on Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen set the record straight on the number of immigrant children separated from their parents at the border.
Nielsen affirmed the “vast, vast majority” of the 12,000 minors detained by federal authorities were transported to the U.S.-Mexico border by human smugglers.
“So I want to be clear on a couple of other things,” Nielsen said. “The vast majority, vast, vast majority of children who are in the care of HHS right now — 10,000 of the 12,000 — were sent here alone by their parents.”
“That’s when they were separated. So somehow we’ve conflated everything,” she added. “But there’s two separate issues. 10,000 of those currently in custody were sent by their parents with strangers undertake a completely dangerous and deadly travel alone.”
On April 6, the Justice Department announced a “zero-tolerance” policy targeting illegal border crossers. Illegal aliens smuggling minors across the border posing as families grew by more than 300 percent in the past year.