DNA testing forces families to face truth

US immigration officials are increasingly turning to genetic testing to verify the biological bonds between new citizens and the overseas relatives they hope to bring to America.

While the tests often lead to joyful reunions, they are forcing others to confront unexpected truths.

Mary K Mount, a DNA testing expert estimates that of the 75,000 immigration cases involving DNA, 15% to 20% do not match.

For 14 years, Isaac Owusu’s sons tugged at his heart from his hometown in Ghana, while he scrimped and saved to bring them to America.

When he became an American citizen and officials suggested taking a DNA test to prove his relationship to his four sons, he embraced the notion.

When the DNA results landed on Isaac Owusu’s dinner table last year, they showed that only one of the four boys — the oldest — was his biological child.

The State Department let his oldest son, now 23, go to the US, but said the others — a 19-year-old and 17-year-old twins — could not, because they are not biologically related to him.

The revelation has forced Mr Owusu, a widower, struggling to accept what was once unthinkable: that his deceased wife had long been unfaithful; that the children he loves are not his own; and that his long efforts to reunite his family may have been in vain.

Similar shocks are reverberating through other families in the US as genetic testing becomes more common.