DHS promotes CBP whistleblowers demoted after warning about lack of DNA collection on illegals

The Department of Homeland Security announced Monday it has promoted three Customs and Border Protection officials who were demoted and had their pay cut under the Biden administration after raising concerns about failing to collect DNA from illegal immigrants at the southern U.S. border.

The "whistle-blowers" are Fred Wynn, Mike Taylor and Mark Jones. They alleged in a June 2024 court filing that their supervisors "retaliated against them for blowing the whistle on CBP’s noncompliance with the DNA Fingerprints Act of 2005."

Wynn and Jones were in acting director roles and Jones was an analyst.

They have now been elevated to new supervisory roles at CBP, and their prior demotions and reductions in pay have been reversed, following seven years of retaliation by their agency superiors and years-long advocacy on their behalf by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who announced their promotions Monday.

“Today is a victory for Fred Wynn, Mike Taylor, Mark Jones and the rule of law," Grassley said. "At long last, these patriotic men will be made whole again.

"I’m very grateful to the leadership at the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, who worked with me to bring these whistleblowers back to their rightful roles. Once again, the Trump administration has shown its respect for people that blow the whistle on wrongdoing.”

Wynn, Taylor, and Jones were all part of CBP’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Division, and were involved in efforts within DHS to implement the fingerprint act, which includes requirements for federal law enforcement agencies to collect DNA from individuals arrested, detained, charged, or convicted by CBP. 

Grassley’s office said Monday that Wynn, Taylor, and Jones were "sidelined for sounding the alarm on the agency’s consistent failure to collect all legally-required DNA samples.”

The office said the three will receive back pay and retirement benefits and that CBP is reauthorizing law enforcement credentials, badges, and firearms for Jones and Taylor that were "revoked" by the Biden administration in 2023.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday. “Under President Trump's leadership, we are restoring what is right and true and getting these patriots back to doing the work they love.”

Rodney Scott, the Trump administration’s nominee to lead CBP, promised Grassley during a confirmation hearing last week that “I do know those three [whistleblowers], and I know one allegation that’s never been levied against them is a challenge of their integrity. I will look into [this], and I will hold people accountable if they’ve violated policies.” 

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel concluded in 2021 that “the agency [DHS] retaliated against the Complainants [Wynn, Jones, and Taylor] for actual or perceived disclosures of wrongdoing.” 

They have been battling in federal court against the retaliatory actions against them.

The first Trump Justice Department published a rule in 2020 to fully comply with the federal DNA collection law, and an executive order by President Donald Trump in late January ordered the U.S. attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to “take all appropriate action to fulfill the requirements” of the DNA fingerprint law.

Highlighting the ongoing problem, Grassley revealed in early 2024 that whistle-blower disclosures showed “the FBI received an alarmingly low percentage of DNA samples” from illegal immigrants in 2023. 

He said that in the first quarter of 2023 there 865,333 nationwide encounters but only 347,231 DNA samples received by the FBI, in the second quarter there were 682,533 nationwide encounters but only 213,011 DNA samples received by the bureau, and in the third quarter 762,659 nationwide encounters but only 282,786 DNA samples received.

Wynn provided Senate roundtable testimony in July 2024, saying that years ago the trio was asked to “develop and implement a DNA collection pilot program” and that “our pilot program was to bring CBP into compliance with the law and submit DNA samples” to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System database.

“The low percentage of DNA collection that we see today allows criminals to commit further crimes including forcible sex offenses, murders, trafficking, drug smuggling and other acts perpetrated on US citizens and residents,” Wynn argued last year, adding that “we found that the career bureaucrats tasked with implementing this law were failing to make even minimal DNA collections.”

Wynn said last year that in May 2017, then-DHS Secretary John Kelly issued a memorandum directing DHS to enhance its biometric collection practices, but that “CBP made no effort to begin DNA collection in response to this memorandum.” Wynn said that “a series of retaliatory actions began” in February 2018 “after DHS leadership became aware of the non-compliance with the law.”

Taylor told the Senate roundtable last year that in 2018, “as we were developing and close to implementing the DNA collection pilot program, we began to see that federal bureaucrats in charge of implementing the DNA Fingerprint Act were actively obstructing the law” and that “it became clear that certain senior officials were hell-bent on slow-rolling any process or pilot program that enabled DNA collection.”

He also said: “Instead of taking the necessary steps to fully comply with the DNA Fingerprint Act, current DHS and CBP management seem more interested in focusing their efforts on continually retaliating against my colleagues and me for disclosing what can now only be described as their chronic malfeasance."

Jones also told the Senate in July 2024 that “since 2018, we have been left with no meaningful tasks or work effectively ending our professional careers” and that, under the Biden administration, “the retaliation, due to our protected disclosures to OSC and Congress, intensified and continues to this day.”

He also said  Wynn was "pressured to take a job well below his expertise and has been subjected to significant reputational harm." 

Jones also told the Senate that he and Taylor were stripped of their law enforcement authorities, credentials and firearms. In addition, Taylor was stripped of his law enforcement retirement benefits.

The DHS inspector general in 2021 determined that “DHS law enforcement components did not consistently collect DNA from arrestees as required” and found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Protective Service “inconsistently” collected DNA, while CBP and the Transportation Security Administration “collected no DNA.”

The watchdog assessed that “without all DHS arrestees’ DNA samples in the FBI’s criminal database, law enforcement likely missed opportunities to receive investigative leads based on DNA matches.”