Using DNA tests to reunite migrant families on the border raises privacy concerns

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story wrongly identified the DNA testing site used to identify the suspected Golden State Killer.
SAN FRANCISCO — Genetics testing companies are offering to help reunite families separated at the border, but it's unclear how they would get DNA kits into the hands of migrants and the testing itself could carry hefty privacy risks for migrant families.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent talks to a migrant woman who was found with a group of families from ...more
Courtney Sacco, Caller-Times via USA TODAY NETWORK
Legal and logistical hurdles remain to reuniting these families after more than 2,300 children were separated from their families at the U.S. border under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
Two for-profit DNA companies, which analyze customers’ DNA through saliva and provide ancestral information, say genetic testing could help reconnect parents with their children. They are offering to donate genetic testing kits and other resources.
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., told USA TODAY she texted 23andMe CEO Ann Wojcicki about her concerns that officials may have lost track of migrant children at the border. Wojcicki offered to help.
“If you’ve got infants, they don’t know their names, they don’t know their parents’ names,” Speier told USA TODAY on Thursday. “23andMe tests would allow the Department of Justice to match people. Right now, there’s no way to know who a parent or child is.”
Wojcicki on Saturday tweeted 23andMe's offer. "To assist in reuniting families, we intend to offer our genetic testing services through non-profit legal aid orgs representing the families," she wrote.

Also on Thursday, MyHeritage said it was pledging 5,000 free DNA kits for separated families.
MyHeritage said it has reached out to relevant government and nonprofit agencies to assist in delivering the kits to migrants, 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.
A Department of Homeland Security representative refused to comment on whether it would consider using DNA kits, saying it could not comment on a matter involving the privacy of minor children.

23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki.
23andMe
To administer the DNA test properly, one would have to collect a saliva sample, then send it to a company lab where it would be processed and compared to other DNA samples.
The algorithms that these companies use could be an effective way to locate relatives in this situation, says Dr. Ruth Ballard, a forensics DNA expert and professor of biological science at California State University Sacramento.
“Certainly anything that is just trying to line up children with parents is easy to do,” she said. “The technology is there.”
Both the child and the parent would have to take a DNA test to determine a match, Mendelsohn said. The test could also reveal relatives that have taken the DNA test before — if their genetic information is still in MyHeritage’s database. Thousands of Central and South Americans have taken the test through MyHeritage, Mendelsohn said.
Serious privacy risks come with handing over your genetic information to a company, Dr. Ballard said.
The arrest of the Golden State Killer last month showed how genetic information can be subject to police subpoena. In that case, authorities identified a suspected killer through a familial match on GEDmatch.
For migrants, this identifying information could put them or their relatives in a vulnerable position. If their genetic information is stored, it could be accessible to law enforcement agencies, including those that deal with immigration enforcement.
“Anytime you give your DNA to a third party you’re potentially giving up a lot