An African Abroad USA investigation shows that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is asking African immigrants to go for DNA testing even when their paper work is complete.

Some observers are of the opinion that this is not usually the case with other regions of the world. There is the suspicion that the immigration service is picking on African immigrants seeking to bring relatives to the United States based on the assumption that they are only trying to smuggle immigrants.

Chris Bentley, a USCIS spokesman, confirmed this assertion in his press statement: “DNA testing is extremely rare in the hundreds of thousands of petitions processed every year.” But this is usually not the case when it comes to African immigrants as a report showed that three out of every five African immigrants are asked to go for DNA testing to prove relationship.

Immigration officials say that when they request for DNA testing, it is usually for cases where applicants from poor countries do not have birth certificates or when discrepancies raise suspicion of fraud.

DNA testing, however, is taking a big toll in African immigrant families spread across the United States and in Africa when a negative DNA match can unravel a relationship of two to five decades [when it exposes a relationship] built upon lies, infidelity, betrayal and illegitimate children.

In the case of Mr. Tunde Alagbade (not his real name), a Nigerian immigrant in Philadelphia, his carefully planned world fell apart last October. Family sources told African Abroad USA that Alagbado immigrated to the United States in 1996. While living in Philadelphia, Alagbado shuttled to Nigeria once a year to meet his wife and his family. When he immigrated, they had five children.

Tired of his trans-Atlantic flights to meet with his family, sources further confided that Alagbado, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen this year, decided to file for his wife and children to join him in Philadelphia.

Things have not been the same since he received a letter from the U.S. embassy in Nigeria that only one of five children passed the test. Four of the children, the DNA confirmed, were not Alagbado’s children.

DNA testing by U.S. immigration services began in the 1990s. This has led to a spike in the numbers of DNA testing companies in the United States. Many DNA testing companies accredited by the U.S. immigration services have reported a rise in the numbers of DNA tests carried out by them. One of these companies reported that it used to have 10 DNA tests per month but has now grown to 40 per month. DNA tests are carried out through a saliva sample and it usually cost anywhere between $600 and $1000.