The Justice Department is planning to require collection of DNA from immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and others in immigration detention for use in a national criminal database, the Wall Street Journal reports. Administration officials said a proposed rule, which injects a new civil-rights issue into the debate about U.S. immigration policy, would require collection of cheek swabs from possibly hundreds of thousands of migrants, including unauthorized immigrants taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. The move would be a significant expansion of the FBI DNA database that contains samples from people accused of committing serious crimes.
Senior Justice Department officials said the expansion brings the government in better compliance with a 2005 law directing it to collect biometric information from several groups of people, including criminals and unauthorized immigrants. Officials said the Trump administration feels compelled to move ahead with the plan because it would help the government better identify immigrants who could commit crimes in the future. The decision alarmed immigrant- and civil-rights advocates, who said collecting DNA samples from people who haven’t committed crimes would amount to significant violations of privacy. The practice could result in discriminatory profiling by other law-enforcement agencies that might have access to the DNA of the immigrants, they said. The move is part of the Trump administration’s broader shift to consider most immigrants entering the U.S., even those who come to legal ports of entry, as criminals. It has made all unauthorized immigrants targets for deportation, a departure from the Obama administration’s policy. Crossing the border illegally a first time is currently considered a misdemeanor under federal law. DHS officials said they were required to take the step under the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005, part of the Bush administration’s response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.