Dem rep taps 23andMe to help reunite migrant families

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) has asked DNA-testing company 23andMe to help reunite migrant families at the southern border. 

Speier on Thursday told BuzzFeed News that the company said, “They were going to think about it.”

“I was just trying to think, how are we going to connect these two? How can we guarantee that the parents are going to get their own child back?” Speier said told the outlet. “I’m thinking, how else are we going to do that? So I was encouraging them to look at whether or not they could provide some kind of assistance here.”

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The congresswoman expressed concerns about what she said was an absence of records for families who had been separated at the border. 

“If they’re under two, they don’t know [who their parents are]. It’s horrible,” she said. “Someone just said to me, it’s a war crime. You know, I think that’s a good way of putting it.”

A spokesperson for the DNA testing company told BuzzFeed that 23andMe is “more than happy to support efforts that can help with the tragic separation of thousands of children from their parents. Connecting and uniting families is core to our mission and something we care deeply about.”

The development comes after President Trump on Wednesday gave into bipartisan pressure and signed an executive order aimed at ending family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The order directs the Department of Homeland Security to keep families together while individuals await trial for illegal border crossing, except in cases where there is a concern that parents “would pose a risk to the child’s welfare.”