In a letter published in Science, an interdisciplinary team of scientists, physicians and human rights advocates propose a DNA-led framework for safely and ethically reunifying the more than 70,000 families separated at the U.S. border as a result of the now-repealed Trump Administration’s Zero Tolerance policy.
Understanding the challenges and implicit trust that goes into the collection and storage of DNA, the team’s scalable framework hinges on an independent third-party reunification team, like the ICMP (International Commission on Missing Persons).
“As a treaty-based intergovernmental organization that operates independent of any nation member, ICMP benefits from privileges and immunities that guarantee legal protections of data, allowing it to securely hold sensitive personal data—including DNA data—without the risk of seizure by government actors or unauthorized distribution,” the team writes. “ICMP has the tools, protections, and infrastructure to expand their expertise in identifications on the deceased to manage DNA data of living, missing persons cases, should they be invited by governments to coordinate.”
According to the new protocol, the third-party team would coordinate outreach, manage mouth swab collection and work with non-governmental organizations, who would be the holders of sensitive demographic and biogeographic data.
Currently, any DNA-based efforts to reunify separated migrant families are performed via a 1:1 DNA test comparison, which tests the hypothesis of a relationship. Thus, testing is only performed if a family member claims a relationship to a separated child.
The establishment of a DNA database, the researchers argue, would facilitate many more reunifications by enabling a 1:many approach—searching each new sample against the stored DNA of many children and many adults. This method tests the hypotheses of kinship among many possibilities, rather than just one.
In most cases, STR analysis will suffice. Because children inherit one copy of each autosomal STR region from each parent, STR analysis is an excellent measure of first-degree genetic relationships. It is usually effective for siblings, and occasionally effective for grandparents, avuncular relatives and half-siblings. Legal guardians or adoptive parents separated from children would have no DNA recourse, however.
Still, as the authors point out, STR analysis is perfectly suited to this application.
“The broad utility of STR analysis in kinship combined with the absence of health or phenotypic information in the resulting DNA data presents an appropriate risk-benefit profile for use as the primary DNA identification modality in familial reunification,” they write.
Additionally, the popularity and increasing use of STRs worldwide opens the door to the possibility of long-term databases for future identifications.
In cases where STRs are insufficient, the researchers suggest the use of SNP analysis and DNA sequencing—with appropriate data safeguards. For example, they say SNP/genomic data should include only those data necessary for identification, and exclude any genomic data that might allude to geographical origin or cultural belonging.
The researchers stress that any data collection, including STRs, be used for family reunification only, not to support persecutions, discrimination or criminal identification, including screening for human trafficking.
The entire framework hinges on earning the trust of migrant families when it comes to sample collection. That’s what makes collaboration with a third-party collection team and NGOs so critical.
“Non-DNA evidence of family relationships is often gathered with NGO support and, in many cases, will be sufficient to establish a relationship,” the research team explains. “However, DNA can expedite otherwise untraceable kinship associations. Handling data outside of law enforcement and other governmental agencies minimizes the risk of data being misused (for example, for deportation proceedings).”