DHS Collecting DNA as Part of Larger 'Massive Surveillance' Effort: Lawsuit
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A lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleges a failure to respond to numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking details on how the agency collects, stores and uses the DNA of noncitizens taken into custody as part of a larger "mass surveillance" effort on behalf of the Trump administration, plaintiffs claim.
Newsweek reached out to DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), for comment.
Why It Matters
The lawsuit comes amid a widespread illegal immigration crackdown by the administration that has extended beyond arrests and deportations to stripping humanitarian parole protections from over 500,000 immigrants and preventing student visa holders from attending some American colleges.
What To Know
The lawsuit was filed June 2 by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology, the Amica Center for Immigrants Rights, and Americans for Immigrant Justice.
They allege that DHS has not been transparent about its rapidly expanding program of genetic data collection from migrants, including children. The FOIA suit expresses mounting concerns about both the scale and oversight of these DNA practices.
"It is a mistake to think of DHS's DNA collection program as 'immigration enforcement,'" Emily Tucker, executive director at the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, said in a statement. "Trump is using immigration powers to justify the activities of his militarized federal police force because there is so little institutional or judicial oversight or accountability for executive enforcement actions that invoke 'immigration authority.'
"This program is one part of a massive surveillance dragnet that sweeps in information about everyone. They will use it for deportation, but they will also use it to intimidate, silence and target anyone they perceive as the enemy."
The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief due to the multiple federal agencies purportedly failing to respond to FOIA requests in a timely fashion, combined with a failure to disclose requested documents within the time prescribed by FOIA.
A police employee tests Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) on a saliva sample for criminal analysis.
A police employee tests Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) on a saliva sample for criminal analysis.
Getty Images
The case stems back to August 2024, when a FOIA request was made to ICE—under the purview of DHS—regarding its practices and procedures pertaining to DNA collection of noncitizens.
Back-and-forth email exchanges between the groups and ICE, with a lack of information allegedly provided by the government, concluded last October with ICE failing to respond and make a required initial "determination" within 20 business days of its receipt.
Between October and January, similar exchanges occurred between the groups and CBP—which is alleged to have not provided a response after more than 30 working days.
A report published on May 21, Raiding the Genome: How the United States Government Is Abusing Its Immigration Powers to Amass DNA for Future Policing, shed light on the dramatic increase of DNA profiles collected from migrants and shared with federal law enforcement.
More than 1.5 million migrant DNA profiles have been added to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) since 2020, representing a 5,000 percent in three years. That genetic data is then made searchable by law enforcement across the country, with samples kept indefinitely.
That report also claims that DHS "misleads and intimidates people to collect their DNA," and primarily collects DNA from people of color.
Stevie Glaberson, director of research & advocacy at the Georgetown University Law Center and co-author of the genome report, told Newsweek on Monday that the Trump administration claims to prioritize transparency but continues to collect DNA "in relative obscurity."
"Little remains known about where and how ICE is collecting DNA, even as we have seen numerous examples of the agency grabbing people off the street with masks on and without identifying insignia, and detaining and even deporting US citizens and individuals with a right to remain in the country," Glaberson said. "We filed this suit in the hopes of chipping away at the obscurity in which the administration is carrying out some of its most dangerous programs.
"The country deserves to know the details of DHS's DNA collection program."
A 2021 report published by the California Law Review cites a disproportionate impact of DNA collection on immigrant and minority communities, sparking significant privacy concerns with little public scrutiny or official explanation.
The report followed a 2019 rule change under the Trump administration that removed earlier exemptions for collecting DNA from some noncitizens. It also required regular DNA swabbing in federal immigration detention, including among asylum seekers at legal U.S. ports of entry.
What People Are Saying
Daniel Melo, Immigration Impact Lab Attorney, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, in a statement: "As immigration enforcement agencies continue to deploy sophisticated tools to target, surveil, and arbitrarily detain non-citizens, the community most impacted by these policy choices has a right to know how, when, and why genetic material is being taken, stored, and used against non-citizens—potentially indefinitely—simply because they were not born in the United States."
Hilton Beckham, assistant commissioner of public affairs at CBP, said in a statement to Wired: "In order to secure our borders, CBP is devoting every resource available to identify who is entering our country. We are not letting human smugglers, child sex traffickers, and other criminals enter American communities... CBP collects DNA samples for submission to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System ... from persons in CBP custody who are arrested on federal criminal charges, and from aliens detained under CBP's authority who are subject to fingerprinting and not otherwise exempt from the collection requirement."
What Happens Next
The suit claims that the government agencies failed to respond within a timely manner; failed to conduct an adequate search based on the information provided for the FOIA requests; and were "wrongly withholding agency records by failing to produce nonexempt records."
The lawsuit seeks a court order compelling DHS to release records related to protocols for DNA collection, storage, access controls and data sharing.
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