ICE conducted the pilot for a few days earlier this month in El Paso and McAllen, Texas, finding about 30 per cent of those tested were not related to the children they claimed were their own, an official told the Washington Examiner.

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The official said that these were not cases of step-fathers or adoptive parents.

‘Those were not the case. In these cases, they are misrepresented as family members,’ the official said.

It is unclear whether every family unit was tested during the pilot, or only those who raised some sort of red flag. An ICE spokesman did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The official said that some migrants did refuse the test and admit that they were not related to the children they were with, when they learned their claim would be subjected to DNA proof.

ICE said the Department of Homeland Security would look at the results of the pilot to determine whether to roll out rapid DNA tests more broadly.

After President Donald Trump’s administration backpedaled on ‘family separation’ in the face of enormous backlash last summer, the number of family units arriving at the southern border has skyrocketed.

Current U.S. law and policy means that Central Americans who cross the border illegally with children can claim asylum and avoid any lengthy detention in most cases.

US Border Patrol says it has apprehended 535,000 for crossing the border illegally so far this year, with ‘no sign of it getting better.’

Due to massive strain on the processing system, 40,000 of those have been released into communities, the agency said.

On Saturday, the Trump administration told lawmakers that it probably will cost more to care for migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico than the $2.9 billion in emergency money requested just two weeks ago.

In a White House letter, acting budget chief Russell Vought said ‘the situation has continued to deteriorate and is exceeding previous high end estimates.’

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a separate letter that needs for the unaccompanied children account ‘could grow further and be closer to the worst-case scenario HHS had proposed be the basis for the supplemental request, which was $1.4 billion higher.’

(Excerpted from The Daily Mail, article by Keith Griffith)

Construction of border wall blocked by federal judge:

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked construction on sections of the wall at the U.S. southern border, which President Donald Trump planned to fund through a national emergency declaration. U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. of San Francisco ruled that because he thought a lawsuit against the effort would likely succeed, the government should postpone work on a 46-mile section of wall in New Mexico and a 5-mile span in Yuma, Arizona. Trump declared a national emergency at the border in February following a protracted funding battle with Congress and a government shutdown. (Excerpted from World, article by Lynde Langdon.)

Private border wall constructed in New Mexico:

A private group announced Monday that it has constructed a half-mile wall along a section of the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico, in what it said was a first in the border debate.

The 18-foot steel bollard wall is similar to the designs used by the Border Patrol, sealing off a part of the border that had been a striking gap in existing fencing, according to We Build the Wall, the group behind the new section.

The section was also built faster and, organizers say, likely more cheaply than the government has been able to manage in recent years.

Kris Kobach, a former secretary of state in Kansas and an informal immigration adviser to President Trump, says the New Mexico project has the president’s blessing and says local Border Patrol agents are eager to have the assistance. . . .

Mr. Trump’s plans to build hundreds of miles of new and replacement wall took a hit late last week when a federal judge ordered a halt to part of his emergency declaration and shifting of money within the Pentagon to make up for Congress’s refusal to grant him the money he wanted.

Judge Haywood Gilliam says the president can’t spend money when Congress has debated it and refused to approve it.

Enter We Build the Wall, which says now that it’s proved it can build border wall. The group has eyes on other areas where private landowners hold border lands and want a barrier to cut down on the illegal traffic across their property. . . .

Construction began Friday and will be completed Tuesday. Tommy Fisher’s Fisher Sand & Gravel did the construction.

Mr. Fisher has been in the news recently with Mr. Trump suggesting repeatedly and publicly that the government should consider his outfit for future border wall construction.

(Excerpted from The Washington Times, article by Stephen Dinan.)