Senate Border Bill Gives $204 Million For Backlogged FBI DNA Testing For Migrant Crimes
From Tampa Free Press
Article By Megan Turner - DCNF, Original Publish Date: February 5, 2024
The Senate border bill would hand the FBI $204 million to help with the backlogged processing of DNA tests of migrants to determine if they are connected to crimes.
The FBI has a 15-month backlog in this testing program. Known as the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), it is used by federal, state and local labs to connect offenders to crimes, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) email chain reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation in late December.
The latest bipartisan funding bill entitled the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024 appropriates $118 billion to provide aid for Ukraine and Israel and enhance domestic border security.
“They [FBI] don’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 two months. Now they are looking at a 15-month backlog,” one CBP official said in the internal chain.
The FBI analyzes and stores the DNA tests for federal border authorities, who test migrants 14 years old and older, according to previous emails reviewed by the DCNF. In April, FBI Director Christopher Wray expressed concerns about a “dramatic increase” in the DNA samples that would need to be tested given increasing level of illegal immigration, according to Voice of America.
House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X Sunday night that the bill would die in the House because it ultimately wouldn’t fully secure the southern border.
“I’ve seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, ‘the border never closes,’” Johnson wrote.
The Border Patrol has seen record highs in illegal immigration in recent years, with more than 2.2 million encounters in fiscal year 2022 and more than 2 million in fiscal year 2023, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
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