23andme donating DNA kits to help reunite migrant families

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press
Immigrant children are shown outside a former Job Corps site that now houses them, Monday, June 18, 2018, in Homestead, Fla. It is not known if the children crossed the border as unaccompanied minors or were separated from family members. An unapologetic President Donald Trump defended his administration's border-protection policies Monday in the face of rising national outrage over the forced separation of migrant children from their parents. (Photo by AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Anne Wojcicki, who runs the personal genome testing company 23andme, and is the wife of the Google co-founder Sergey Brin, at company headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Nov. 1, 2013. In a crackdown on genetic testing offered directly to consumers, the Food and Drug Administration is demanding that 23andMe cease marketing its main DNA service until it receives clearance from the agency. (Peter DaSilva/The New York Times)
A migrant mother waits with her two daughters on their way to the port of entry to ask for asylum in the U.S. on June 21, 2018 in Tijuana, Mexico. The mother, who did not wish to give their names, said they were fleeing their hometown near the Pacific coast of Mexico after suffering a violent carjacking of her taxicab. The Trump Administration's controversial zero tolerance immigration policy led to an increase in the number of migrant children who have been separated from their families at the southern U.S. border. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
A migrant mother waits with one of her two daughters on their way to the port of entry to ask for asylum in the U.S. on June 21, 2018 in Tijuana, Mexico. The mother, who did not wish to give their names, said they were fleeing their hometown near the Pacific coast of Mexico after suffering a violent carjacking of her taxicab. The Trump Administration's controversial zero tolerance immigration policy led to an increase in the number of migrant children who have been separated from their families at the southern U.S. border.
Shoes are left by people at the Tornillo Port of Entry near El Paso, Texas, June 21, 2018 during a protest rally by several American mayors against the US administration's family separation policy. President Donald Trump ordered an end to the separation of migrant children from their parents on the US border June 20, 2018, reversing a tough policy under heavy pressure from his fellow Republicans, Democrats and the international community. The spectacular about-face comes after more than 2,300 children were stripped from their parents and adult relatives after illegally crossing the border since May 5 and placed in tent camps and other facilities, with no way to contact their relatives.(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
Religious groups hold a prayer vigil with children wrapped in survival blankets to protest "the cruel treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration" in the Russell Senate Office Building rotunda at the US Capitol on June 21, 2018 in Washington DC. US lawmakers were poised to vote Thursday on long-term Republican-sponsored fixes to immigration amid a firestorm over family separations on the US-Mexico border. (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
Activists rally to support immigrants and to mark World Refugee Day, June 20, 2018 near Trump World Tower in New York City. Bowing to political pressure from both parties, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that will end his policy of separating families along the southern border. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, more than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents at the border as a result of the Trump administration's 'zero-tolerance' illegal immigration policy. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Recently arrived migrant families rest at the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center on June 21, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. Once families and individuals are released from Customs and Border Protection to continue their legal process, they are brought to the center to rest, clean up, enjoy a meal and get guidance to their next destination. Before Trump signed an executive order yesterday that the administration says halts the practice of separating families seeking asylum, more than 2,300 immigrant children had been separated from their parents in the zero-tolerance policy for border crossers. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Immigrants from Guatemala seeking asylum receive help the bus station after they were processed and released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Thursday, June 21, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end family separations at the border. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Immigrant children from Nicaragua, Jenque Chevarria, 6, center, and his brother Jose, left, play inside the Catholic Charities RGV Thursday, June 21, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. Families, who have been processed and released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, wait inside the facility before continuing their journey to cities across the United States. The Chevarria's family is heading to San Francisco. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Immigrants from Guatemala seeking asylum look over travel packets as they wait at the bus station after they were processed and released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Thursday, June 21, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end family separations at the border. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A group of immigrants from Honduras and Guatemala seeking asylum receive help the bus station after they were processed and released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Thursday, June 21, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end family separations at the border. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Activists shout toward the U.S. Mission to the United Nations while rallying in support immigrants and to mark World Refugee Day, June 20, 2018 in New York City. Bowing to political pressure from both parties, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that will end his policy of separating families along the southern border. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, more than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents at the border as a result of the Trump administration's 'zero-tolerance' illegal immigration policy. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
A child holds a sign as religious groups hold a prayer vigil with children wrapped in survival blankets to protest "the cruel treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration" in the Russell Senate Office Building rotunda at the US Capitol on June 21, 2018 in Washington DC. US lawmakers were poised to vote Thursday on long-term Republican-sponsored fixes to immigration amid a firestorm over family separations on the US-Mexico border. (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
Recently arrived migrant families rest at the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center on June 21, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. Once families and individuals are released from Customs and Border Protection to continue their legal process, they are brought to the center to rest, clean up, enjoy a meal and get guidance to their next destination. Before Trump signed an executive order yesterday that the administration says halts the practice of separating families seeking asylum, more than 2,300 immigrant children had been separated from their parents in the zero-tolerance policy for border crossers. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Jennifer Chevarria, from Nicaragua, opens her arms for son, Jayden, 2, at the Catholic Charities RGV Thursday, June 21, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. The family was processed and released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Tuesday and are waiting to travel to San Francisco to stay with relatives. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Activists demonstrate as a group of US mayors hold a press conference outside the holding facility for immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas, near the Mexican border, Thursday, June 21, 2018. About 20 mayors from cities across the country call for the immediate reunification of immigrant children with their families. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

By Tatiana Sanchez | Bay Area News Group

PUBLISHED: June 21, 2018 at 3:04 p.m. | UPDATED: June 25, 2018 at 1:38 p.m.

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The CEO of the popular DNA-testing company 23andMe has agreed to provide DNA kits to help reunite the hundreds of migrant families separated at the border in recent weeks, after Congresswoman Jackie Speier approached the Mountain View-based company with the idea.

“They have committed to providing all the tests necessary to test the parents and the children,” Speier told this news organization.

Speier, D-Hillsborough, said she met with a company leader Thursday to ask if they could use DNA kits to reunite children separated from their parents under President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, which aimed to prosecute anyone who crossed the border illegally.

They told her they’d consider the idea, she said. Speier then got in touch with CEO Anne Wojcicki, who agreed to take on the task.

More than 2,000 migrant children have yet to be be reunited with their parents, despite President Trump’s executive order Wednesday reversing the separation of families at the border — families will now be detained together — and it’s unclear how exactly immigration officials plan to do so.

A spokesperson for Wojcicki declined to provide further details about the company’s proposal, but the CEO tweeted Thursday afternoon, “We would welcome any opportunity to help.”

We've heard from many of our customers that they would like to see 23andMe help reunite family members that were tragically separated from each other. Connecting and uniting families is core to the mission of 23andMe. We would welcome any opportunity to help.

— Anne Wojcicki (@annewoj23) June 21, 2018

Speier said the next step is to reach out to federal officials for direction on how to move forward with testing.

“It doesn’t change the fact that these children have been subject to clinical child abuse or that they’ve been scarred for life,” Speier said. “But I feel a little more confident that we’re going to reunite parents and children.”

Under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, parents and their children were sent in different directions: Thousands of kids went to juvenile shelters under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, while parents were taken to adult detention facilities in other areas under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

It’s this discrepancy that could make reuniting families extremely difficult.

“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 told BuzzFeed, which first reported the news Thursday. “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.”

Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy sparked national outrage as images and audio surfaced of children crying out for their parents. Other images showed children in cages in detention facilities in Texas.

Border Patrol agents have said fears of trafficking and exploitation often lead to family separation, since adults and children who show up at the border aren’t always related. The Border Patrol logged 462 cases of fraud among children and family migrants in the Rio Grande Valley alone in the last five years, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.

Some social justice organizations said they’d support DNA testing to help parents reunite with their children, while others say it’s an aggressive tactic that would put people’s DNA in the hands of strangers with no knowledge of how it could be used in the future.

In a Tweet Thursday, Ivanka Trump said “it’s time to focus on swiftly and safely reuniting the families that have been separated.”

Now that an EO has been signed ending family separation at the border, it is time to focus on swiftly and safely reuniting the families that have been separated.

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 21, 2018

23andMe uses at-home saliva samples sent to accredited labs to determine ancestry estimates “down to the 0.1%,” according to the company’s website.

Speier will travel to the U.S. -Mexico border in Texas Friday with a small group of constituents to speak to some of the families and to deliver clothing and other items to immigrant children.