The Department of Homeland Security has refused to follow a law mandating it take DNA samples from illegal immigrants taken into custody, which would identify violent criminals and child traffickers, employees told the U.S. Senate this week.
Speaking to senators on Tuesday, three former WMD officials presented evidence that DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had blocked their efforts to comply with a 2005 law, then retaliated against them when they sounded the alarm about the lawbreaking.
"Given the enormous potential of DNA collection to facility solving crimes, we took our job seriously," Fred Wynn said.
Law enforcement experts from CBP's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) unit were tasked with implementing a mandatory program to DNA-test illegals. But higher-ups at DHS were so opposed to the law that they continuously thwarted it, eventually disbanding the entire WMD division, the whistleblowers say. Disbanding the division may have opened the United States to a WMD attack, in addition to criminals crossing the border.
The disbanding also allowed hundreds of thousands of children to stay with people who claimed to be relatives, but who may have been child labor or sex traffickers. DNA testing is the only reliable way to ensure that children aren't coming across the border with traffickers, or being taken to live with them by U.S. officials as "sponsors."
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Jones said the WMD team had its responsibilities stripped, and were told to come to work and simply sit and do nothing. In one case, one team member was told to report to a new desk that had no internet, phone, or power.
"Certain senior officials were hell-bent on slow-rolling any process or pilot program that enabled DNA collection," he said.
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Mike Taylor, the third WMD whistleblower, said the men have repeatedly reached out to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, but have received no corrective action. Meanwhile, those who retaliated against the men have been promoted.
