Canadian trying to cross border says U.S. customs officers made him give DNA sample

And now we want to tell you a story

about one Ontario man who tried to enter

the United States to attend a No Kings

rally in Michigan last year. He was

turned away by border officials. All

right. But not before he says officers

forced him to give a DNA sample. Now

this story has drawn a lot of attention

from the public, also from lawmakers who

are now demanding answers from the Trump

administration. Mark Harksaw is here

with me in studio. You've been looking

into the story. So what exactly happened

here? So Natasha 6 68-year-old Kevin

Larson, he lives in King Carden,

Ontario. As you mentioned, he was trying

to cross the border. This was last

October uh 2025 to go to a no Kings

protest. He figured that he might have

some trouble getting across the border

just for the main reason that he was

going there for. He didn't think that

what happened to him would end up

happening, though. He says he was

eventually held for 3 hours when he

crossed the border. He was sent for a

secondary inspection. when he got into

the office, uh, his phone was searched,

his car was searched, and in the end

they denied him entry. He says customs

officers then told him he had to provide

a DNA sample via a cheek swab. When he

refused to do that, that's when things

took a turn that quite frankly to some

might sound a little bit scary.

>> Said, "No, I'm not going to give you the

DNA sample." Eventually, a supervisor

took me into a private room and he

actually read the regulation that he was

citing to ask me for DNA

and it's a charge if you're found

guilty, sir, is a maximum jail sentence

of one year.

>> Now, not wanting to be charged, not

wanting to be jailed. And Larson also

says that he has family in the US that

he wants to continue to go visit. He

eventually relented. He gave a DNA swab

uh and was eventually denied access to

the country and sent home. Uh but he

obviously wants answers as to why this

happened, why he was made to do that,

and he wants that DNA swab scrubbed from

the DOJ FBI records.

>> Mhm. Okay. So, in terms of a response or

clarification from authorities, where

are we?

>> Our colleagues at CBC Windsor did reach

out to the Customs and Border Patrol

agency in the US to try to get a

response. They didn't get one in time

for publishing their story. Hours after

they published that story, though, the

CBP did reply to them with a written

statement. Here's what they had to say.

Quote, "On October 18th, 2025, a

68-year-old Canadian citizen arrived at

the Blue Water Bridge. In secondary

inspection, the alien gave inconsistent

answers for his reason for traveling to

the US. He was deemed inadmissible and

allowed to withdraw his application for

admission and allowed to voluntarily

depart the US. A DNA sample was

collected in accordance with the law,

DNA fingerprint act of 2005 due to this

immigration violation. But there is some

question as to whether he really needed

to have the DNA swab done because he

didn't have any previous unlawful

entries into the US. He had no criminal

record. So there are some questions as

to whether that should happen. One of

the people questioning that is Debbie

Dingle. She's a Democrat representative

for an area of Michigan who heard this

story and was insensed.

So I could I had no idea why they were

treating him so terribly at the border.

Why or what statute would they even be

able to collect DNA under? How are they

using it? And quite frankly, it bothered

me even broader because Canada's our

neighbor and our friend.

>> She and another representative have sent

letters to Homeland Security, the state

and justice departments demanding

answers. As of Monday, uh so far no

reply. Okay, Mark Carusol, thanks so

much.

>> Thank you.