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Over the last month, ICE has piloted 90-minute DNA tests to prove that parents and children arriving at the border are related.
Last night ICE told contractors it's expanding the program: fbo.gov/index?s=opport…
Last night ICE told contractors it's expanding the program: fbo.gov/index?s=opport…
"Operation Double Helix 2.0" will run for at least 5 months at 7 locations on the southern border, with an option for another 5 months. ICE estimates running 50,000 DNA tests each period. 
This contracting doc repeats a claim made often by DHS officials, that an "increase in fraudulent family relationship claims" requires such a response. According to government stats, this fraud is still very rare. washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/…
In this @wired explainer, @MeganMolteni details how the tech works. It's not great at proving extended family ties, but in this case ICE only wants to test for parentage. wired.com/story/how-dna-…
ICE also says the DNA samples will be destroyed after the test so they can't be re-read. At least in this case, ICE says it's not building a biometric database of people crossing the border or feeding info to crime databases.
Actually, the US is paying other countries to build a global migrant biometrics database, but that's a whole other thing, called BITMAP. pa.usembassy.gov/bitmap-securit…
