DNA sample collection from migrants without criminal convictions reaches the courts

Several civil rights organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over lack of information regarding the collection and use of migrants’ DNA. The plaintiffs allege that the collected samples are being transferred to the FBI for testing and inclusion in the federal government’s DNA database known as the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which is used by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to identify suspects. The addition of migrants with no criminal history on these lists, and the potential use of their genetic information, raises concerns among civil rights experts.

The program to collect genetic samples from migrants was launched in 2020, during Donald Trump’s first term, and expanded during the Biden administration. The Republican administration’s crackdown on immigration has heightened concerns among its critics. “The public needs to know now more than ever what the government is doing,” said Stevie Glaberson, research director of the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology, in a statement to EL PAÍS.

Glaberson’s D.C.-based center is part of the lawsuit along with the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and Americans for Immigrant Justice. The three organizations filed the suit after waiting more than nine months for DHS to respond to their Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests for clarification on how the different agencies collect and store the samples, who handles them, how these individuals are trained, what policies and procedures guide them in running the program, and who is subject to it.

According to the 2024 report Raiding the Genome, co-authored by Glaberson, DHS added 1.5 million profiles to CODIS in three years, a 5,000% increase in the DNA collection program. Wired magazine published a story last month reporting that immigration authorities have collected data on 133,000 children, including a four-year-old boy, who could end up in the criminal database.

Experts denounce that CODIS was designed to track criminals, not to permanently catalog the genetic information of undocumented immigrants who cross the border and end up in the hands of immigration authorities. “There really is no protection. The way DNA is collected is unconstitutional and violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects against search and seizure,” Glaberson criticizes.

The decision to collect samples falls on the immigration agent, which leads to arbitrary decisions. The study reveals that there is a higher rate of collection among people of color, and there is a risk that it may even be used on U.S. citizens. “We have already seen how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) constantly make mistakes. There is nothing in this program that can stop them,” says Glaberson.

DNA samples provide the most complete information about a person’s genetic code. The FBI’s storage of this material worries experts, who believe they could be used to map communities, conduct genetic surveillance, or identify individuals. They warn that the government could use DNA to track down migrants’ relatives or predict hereditary diseases, which could influence decisions about their admission to the country by predicting the government support they will need.

“As immigration enforcement agencies continue to deploy sophisticated tools to arbitrarily identify, monitor, and detain foreigners, the community most affected by these policy decisions has the right to know how, when, and why genetic material is being extracted, stored, and used against foreigners — possibly indefinitely — simply for not being born in the United States,” said Daniel Melo, an Amica attorney involved in the lawsuit.

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