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Government Medicine Security United States

Government Plans To Collect DNA From Detained Immigrants (nytimes.com) 232

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The Trump administration is moving to begin collecting DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of people booked into federal immigration custody each year for entry into a national criminal database, an immense expansion of the use of technology to enforce the nation's immigration laws. Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that the Justice Department was developing a federal regulation that would give immigration officers the authority to collect DNA in detention facilities that are holding more than 40,000 people.

The move would constitute a major expansion of the use of a database maintained by the F.B.I., which has been limited mainly to genetic data collected from people who have been arrested, charged or convicted in connection with serious crimes. Immigrant and privacy advocates said the move raised privacy concerns for an already vulnerable population that could face profiling or discrimination as a result of their personal data being shared among law enforcement authorities. The new rules would allow the government to collect DNA from children, as well as those who seek asylum at legal ports of entry and have not broken the law. They warned that United States citizens, who are sometimes accidentally booked into immigration custody, could also be forced to hand over their private genetic information.
Homeland security officials said the new initiative was permitted under the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005. "Up until now, immigrant detainees have been exempt from the law, they said, because of an agreement between Eric H. Holder Jr. and Janet Napolitano, who served as attorney general and homeland security secretary, respectively, under President Barack Obama," reports The New York Times.

The new program "would provide a comprehensive DNA profile of individuals who are tested, as opposed to the more narrow test that was used only to determine parentage," the report says. "And unlike the testing under the pilot program, the results would be shared with other law enforcement agencies."
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Government Plans To Collect DNA From Detained Immigrants

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  • Immigrants? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @10:32PM (#59263976)
    Immigrants are not being detained... illegal aliens are
    • No, illegal immigrants are as well.
    • by SirSlud ( 67381 )

      "The new rules would allow the government to collect DNA from children as well as those who seek asylum at legal ports of entry."

      Also including people who are applying for immigration via legal claims for asylum. But it always comes down to you dipshits suggesting your few rotten apples excuse the 1984 sitcom you're terrified about, because good gosh, in this case it will only be selectively applied to mean people from other countries who sneak in. It's practically the playbook for government overreach - ma

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Statistically immigrants commit less crime than natives. The numbers would be even lower if they weren't made more vulnerable to exploitation by the immigration system being so difficult.

        • Thousands of people immigrate through the system legally. Apparently it's not that hard. Illegals aren't even trying. And no, they're not fleeing "oppression". We have interviews and they're just coming for jobs.
        • You're lumping all "immigrants" together when the main thing we're worried about with regards to crime are illegal border crossers.

          I expect legal immigrants to have lower crime rates than any native population because they're screened for criminal records before being granted a visa. They also have the resources and conscientiousness to navigate the immigration system. If we could just look at the cohort of native born Americans who could pass a background check, had money and could fill out forms they'd ha

          • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            You're lumping all "immigrants" together when the main thing we're worried about with regards to crime are illegal border crossers.

            If that is your concern then your tactics so far are failing badly and hurting innocent people. You should think of better ways to deal with that.

            Here's a tip. The best way to reduce illegal border crossings is to create more legal routes. That would reduce the number of people crossing illegal out of desperation and encourage them to make proper applications, leaving only the ones with ill intent trying to get around the system.

            • The best way to reduce illegal border crossings is to create more legal routes

              No, I'm pretty sure a wall will be much more effective than just letting anyone in.

    • by jythie ( 914043 )
      Since they are also holding people who are legally seeking asylum, and they are holding people before they have had any sort of hearing, 'immigrant' would be the correct umbrella term. The whole point of the detention is that they have not yet decided if they are 'illegal aliens' yet.
  • Slippery slopes (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DrLudicrous ( 607375 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @10:50PM (#59264012) Homepage
    Next thing weâ(TM)ll bitch about is when the EU asks for our DNA to enter France. Or maybe we just donâ(TM)t collect biometrics like this because of the abuse potential.
    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by drnb ( 2434720 )
      We need the DNA to match parents/children without documentation
      • We need the DNA to match parents/children without documentation

        And what happens if DNA doesn't match because child was adopted or 1 of the biological parents remarried, but is not present due to some reason (death, got left behind, is already in the U.S. etc.) and is now being raised and cared for by the non-biological parent?

        • Re:Slippery slopes (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Oligonicella ( 659917 ) on Thursday October 03, 2019 @05:17AM (#59264616)
          It's a flag to investigate the alleged relationship further. Those people attempting illegal entry will have a longer delay. A LEGAL immigrant would already have all the paperwork necessary to verify the relationship. So your point is we're inconveniencing illegals?
          • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            Unless they were legally claiming asylum and had lost the paperwork when they fled.

            In order to keep people prisoner one thing that abusers and organized crime often do is take away their documentation, and then point out that without it they won't be accepted and will be thrown in a cage.

  • by Darkling-MHCN ( 222524 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @11:18PM (#59264058)

    The infringement of civil liberties always starts with the most vulnerable, like illegal immigrants, it eventually works its way up to the rest of us.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by i.r.id10t ( 595143 )

      No, taking DNA swabs has been part of the standard arrest booking process in a lot of places just like taking photos and finger prints.

    • by r2kordmaa ( 1163933 ) on Thursday October 03, 2019 @12:03AM (#59264158)
      There is nothing to start, commercial and voluntary programs have already done the entire job. Everyone has some distant cousin into genealogy research and another into having his genes sequenced, which means that pretty much the entire population is mapped out already. Not to every last detail, but that hardly matters you can still track an unknown gene sample to the individual it belongs to. Which is not much of a civil liberty problem really, this is only relevant to criminal investigations and there are no civil liberties protecting you from being investigated in such cases anyway. If something that identifies you is found at a crime site it shouldn't come as a surprise that you get people knocking on your door nor is it any sort of violation of your rights.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Not even illegal immigrants. They are all innocent until proven guilty, and many are legally claiming asylum.

      Sadly even in Europe they do use biometrics, although not DNA in my experience. My wife had to give fingerprints and a they took facial recognition data from her photo, just to get her residency card. Well, even British citizen's get the facial recognition part now when they apply for a passport.

      • They are all innocent until proven guilty, and many are legally claiming asylum.

        No they aren't, as asylum seekers are to apply at the first country they enter, not trek a thousand miles to the job they'd rather have.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          The UN guidelines are that they should apply at the first safe country they reach. It doesn't define "safe". And that's just a guideline, it's not US law or in fact law in most developed nations.

  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Thursday October 03, 2019 @04:34AM (#59264556)

    We have extrajudicial detention centers where torture is practiced, militarized police, camps, mass surveillance, fingerprinting, and now this.

    All that remains now is to find some excuse to invade another country. Oh wait, we've done that already too...

  • Getting DNA samples from crocodiles' teeth.

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