Genetic testing firms are offering to help reunite families separated at the border, but it’s unclear how they would get DNA kits into the hands of immigrants, and the testing itself could carry privacy dangers, USA Today reports. The immigration advocacy group RAICES Texas warned against the practice, saying storing DNA data could put personal information at risk for vulnerable individuals seeking asylum. “Potentially, we’re trying to solve one civil rights violation with another civil rights violation,” said Jennifer Falcon, of RAICES, the beneficiary of a $20 million Facebook fundraising campaign for immigrant children separated from their parents. Two for-profit DNA companies said they could help reunite the more than 2,300 children separated from their parents or caregivers at the U.S. border under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
The companies 23and me and MyHeritage , which analyze customers’ DNA through saliva and provide ancestral information, say genetic testing could help reconnect parents with their children. They offered to donate genetic testing kits and other resources as public outrage over the separations mounted. MyHeritage said it was pledging 5,000 free DNA kits for separated families. It said it has reached out to government and nonprofit agencies to assist in delivering the kits to immigrants, who are either detained or have already been deported. “The idea would be to work with the relevant organizations so, if there are parents trying to reconnect with their children, we can facilitate that process,” MyHeritage spokesperson Rafi Mendelsohn said. How the tests would be distributed or which federal agency would do it is unclear.