LOS ANGELES – Bradley Waite wanted to bring his adult daughter to this country from Jamaica, but couldn’t prove they were related – she was born out of wedlock, so his name was not on her original birth certificate.
U.S. immigration officials did something unusual that’s becoming more common: They asked for DNA tests.
Waite grumbled over the $1,000 cost as he submitted to the testing several weeks ago. “We needed more proof, but I wish I didn’t have to take it, because it cost too much money,” said the 52-year-old construction worker in New York City.
Genetic tests are playing a larger role in the U.S. immigration process. In some cases, the government is asking for DNA proof of a family connection; in other cases, applicants are offering to undergo testing in hopes of speeding up a process that often takes years. Either way, the applicant must bear the cost.
Though U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it does not track how often DNA testing is used in immigration and citizenship cases, testing companies say that in recent years they have seen a sharp increase.
Generally, U.S. citizens can petition to bring spouses, parents, children or siblings here, while legal permanent residents can apply for spouses and unmarried children.
DNA testing in applications began in the 1990s and remains “extremely rare” in the hundreds of thousands of petitions processed every year, said immigration services spokesman Chris Bentley.
“We’ll consider all other documentation first,” Bentley said. “If something is missing, or we need to verify a relationship, we can ask for the test.”
The DNA is used only for immigration purposes and is not put into a database, Bentley said. Some lawyers representing immigrants argue that tests are overused and wonder what the government is doing with the information.
“DNA has its upside and downside,” said Daniel Sharp, legal director for Carecen, a Hispanic advocacy group in Los Angeles that helps immigrants with applications. “There is a concern about how much information the government has.”
Seattle-based Genelex Corp. has gone from administering about 10 immigration-related DNA tests per month in 2001 to about 40 per month over the past year, said Kristine Ashcraft, director of client relations.
“Many immigrants are realizing the test could cut down on the length of an application,” Ashcraft said.
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