Latest news with #CombinedDNAIndexSystem
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Homeland Security faces lawsuit over ‘massive surveillance dragnet' collecting immigrant DNA — including from children
Immigration authorities are collecting DNA from immigrants — including children — and feeding that information into a massive criminal database. Most of those immigrants are not accused of committing any crime, but federal law enforcement agencies can now access their detailed DNA profiles as part of a 'massive surveillance dragnet that sweeps in information about everyone,' according to a lawsuit demanding information from Donald Trump's administration. Monday's lawsuit from the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology calls on the Department of Homeland Security to answer how, exactly, the agency 'collects, stores and uses' those DNA samples. Georgetown Law and two other immigration groups filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information last year. Nine months later, without any response, the groups are now suing the agency for answers. DHS is 'quickly becoming the primary contributor of DNA profiles to the nation's criminal policing DNA database,' according to Stevie Glaberson, director of research and advocacy for Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy & Technology. The Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, is administered by the FBI. The network is used by local, state and federal enforcement agencies to match DNA from crime scenes to identify suspects. Last year, Georgetown's center discovered that border agents are collecting DNA from virtually anyone in their custody, no matter how long they have been detained. That information is fed into CODIS, where it lives indefinitely, 'simply because they were not born in the United States,' according to Daniel Melo, an attorney with Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, which joined Georgetown's lawsuit. Homeland Security has added more than 1.5 million DNA profiles to the database since 2020, marking a 5,000 percent increase in submissions between 2000 and 2024, the report found. That figure includes more than 133,000 children, according to data reviewed by Wired. Nearly 230 children are under the age of 13 and more than 30,000 were between 14 and 17 years old. 'The government's DNA collection program represents a massive expansion of genetic surveillance and an unjustified invasion of privacy,' report author and Center on Privacy & Technology Justice Fellow Emerald Tse said at the time. 'The program reinforces harmful narratives about immigrants and intensifies existing policing practices that target immigrant communities and communities of color, making us all less safe,' Tse added. 'Americans deserve visibility on the details of this program, and the department's lack of transparency is unacceptable,' Glaberson said Monday. The lawsuit joins a wave of litigation against Trump's expanding 'mass deportation operation,' which is deploying officers across all federal law enforcement agencies to ramp up arrests and rapidly remove people from the country. Emily Tucker, executive director at Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy & Technology, said it's a 'mistake' to consider DNA collection part of 'immigration enforcement.' The president is instead relying on broad immigration authorities to justify Trump's expansion of federal law enforcement, according to Tucker. 'This program is one part of a massive surveillance dragnet that sweeps in information about everyone,' Tucker added. 'They will use it for deportation, but they will also use it to intimidate, silence, and target anyone they perceive as the enemy.' Last week, reports emerged that the administration has deepened the federal government's ties to Palantir, a tech firm allegedly building wide-ranging data tools to collect and surveil information for millions of Americans. Palantir — co-founded by Silicon Valley investor, Republican donor, and JD Vance mentor Peter Thiel — is reportedly working inside Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among other agencies. The administration has reportedly spent more than $113 million with Palantir through new and existing contracts, while the company is slated to begin work on a new $795 million deal with the Defense Department. The Independent has requested comment from Homeland Security.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
US immigration authorities collecting DNA information of children in criminal database
US immigration authorities are collecting and uploading the DNA information of migrants, including children, to a national criminal database, according to government documents released earlier this month. The database includes the DNA of people who were either arrested or convicted of a crime, which law enforcement uses when seeking a match for DNA collected at a crime scene. However, most of the people whose DNA has been collected by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the agency that published the documents, were not listed as having been accused of any felonies. Regardless, CBP is now creating a detailed DNA profile on migrants that will be permanently searchable by law enforcement, which amounts to a 'massive expansion of genetic surveillance', one expert said. The DNA information is stored in a database managed by the FBI called the Combined DNA Index System (Codis), which is used across the country by local, state and federal law enforcement to identify suspects of crimes using their DNA data. Related: Doge gained access to sensitive data of migrant children, including reports of abuse Wired first reported the practice and the existence of these documents, and estimates there are more than 133,000 migrant teens and children whose DNA has been collected and uploaded to Codis. One of them was just four years old. '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,' Hilton Beckham, the assistant commissioner of public affairs at CBP, told Wired in a statement. 'Toward this end, 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.' Experts at Georgetown University and the Center on Privacy and Technology published a report last week that found that CBP was collecting the DNA of almost every migrant detained, regardless of how long they were detained. The agency has added more than 1.5m DNA profiles to Codis since 2020, a 5,000% increase in just three years, according to the report. It's a 'massive expansion of genetic surveillance and an unjustified invasion of privacy,' according to one of the authors of the report, Emerald Tse. 'The program reinforces harmful narratives about immigrants and intensifies existing policing practices that target immigrant communities and communities of color, making us all less safe,' Tse said in a statement. The documents CBP published, which detail each individual whose DNA was swabbed, their age and country of origin, where they were transferred to, and what they were charged with, date back to as early as 2020. The latest document published is from the first quarter of 2025. There are hundreds of thousands of entries of people whose DNA has been collected by CBP between 2020 and 2024. Of the more than 130,000 individuals who were children or teens, nearly 230 were children under the age of 13 and more than 30,000 were between 14 and 17 years old, according to Wired. CBP first launched a pilot program to begin collecting detainees' DNA data in 2020, in accordance with a Department of Justice rule that gave the agency three years to comply with a new requirement to collect genetic samples and upload it to Codis. At the time, CBP wrote that it was collecting DNA data from non-US citizens who had been detained between the ages of 14 and 79. The Department of Homeland Security and CBP policy generally states that children under 14 are not obliged to have their DNA information collected, though there is some discretion afforded to field officers. However, this pace of genetic data collection would not have been possible in a criminal legal context, according to the Center on Privacy and Technology and Georgetown report. 'Until 2020, almost all the DNA profiles in Codis's 'offender' database were added by state and local police and other criminal law enforcement agencies,' the report reads. 'In the criminal context, there are some limitations on when, how and from whom criminal law enforcement agencies can take DNA which make the process of amassing samples cumbersome and resource-intensive.' Related: Undocumented man accused of making threat to Trump's life may be victim of frame-up The expansion was possible partly because there are fewer limitations on DNA collection within the context of immigration. 'In the immigration context, the only limitation on DNA collection is that a person must be 'detained'. But the meaning of the term 'detained' in the immigration context is notoriously broad, vague and ever shifting,' the report reads. According to the CBP website, the agency sends the DNA data directly to the FBI and does not store or maintain the DNA data itself. That genetic information is stored by the FBI indefinitely, according to the Center on Privacy and Technology and Georgetown report. 'How would it change your behavior to know that the government had a drop of your blood – or saliva – containing your 'entire genetic code, which will be kept indefinitely in a government-controlled refrigerator in a warehouse in Northern Virginia'?' the report reads, quoting CBP's documents. 'Would you feel free to seek out the medical or reproductive care you needed? To attend protests and voice dissent? To gather together with the people of your choosing?'
6 days ago
What we know about the escape of a former police chief and convicted killer in Arkansas
CALICO ROCK, Ark. -- Officials scoured Arkansas' rugged Ozark Mountains for a former police chief and convicted killer who escaped from prison over the weekend. Grant Hardin, who briefly served as police chief for the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving a decades-long sentence for murder and rape. Known as the 'Devil in the Ozarks,' he escaped Sunday from the North Central Unit, a medium-security prison in Calico Rock. Hardin's escape happened days after 10 men fled a New Orleans jail by going through a hole behind a toilet. Eight of those fugitives have since been captured. Here's what to know about Hardin and his escape: Hardin escaped from the prison Sunday afternoon by impersonating a corrections officer 'in dress and manner,' according to a court document. A prison officer opened a secure gate, allowing him to leave the facility. The outfit was not a standard inmate or correctional uniform, said Rand Champion, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Corrections. Officials are working to determine how he was either able to get the uniform or manufacture it himself. Video surveillance shows Hardin escaped at about 2:55 p.m. on Sunday, Champion said. Officials announced his escape about two hours later. But how he got out of the prison and escaped into a rural part of the state, as well as whether he had any help is still unclear. Prison officials say they are investigating what led up to the escape 'to help determine any assistance he may have had.' Champion said the decision to house Hardin in a medium-security facility, which has a capacity of about 800 people, weighed the 'needs of the different facilities and inmates' and 'assessments' of his crimes. Hardin had been held at the Calico Rock prison since 2017 after pleading guilty to first-degree murder for fatally shooting James Appleton, 59. Appleton, a Gateway water department employee, was shot in the head in 2017. Police found his body inside a car. Hardin was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Hardin's DNA was entered into the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, and it matched the 1997 rape of a teacher at an elementary school in Rogers, north of Fayetteville. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison for that crime. He was a police officer in Eureka Springs at that time. Hardin became police chief of Gateway, a town of about 450 people, in 2016. Virtually overnight, people in the community described in the HBO documentary 'Devil in the Ozarks' a dramatic shift. 'He was out chasing cars for no reason," said Cheryl Tillman, one of Appleton's sisters. "He was pulling guns on the citizens here in Gateway and then as time went on with him being the police chief things just started going down hill fast.' The documentary revealed a crucial run-in between Hardin and Appleton in the Spring of 2016 in which Appleton stood up to Hardin about fixing a police car. A Benton county sheriff's office lieutenant described several times when they got into each other's faces and the dislike they both felt toward one another. The city council gave him an ultimatum: resign or be fired. He stepped down four months after taking the position and nine months later, he killed Appleton. Hardin was the focus of a popular 2023 HBO documentary, 'Devil in the Ozarks,' that featured interviews with everyone from the victim of the 1997 rape and sisters of the murder victim to Hardin's family. It revealed key details about the bubbling resentment Hardin felt toward Appleton as well as revealing accounts of the moments right before and after the murder. Then Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, who was Appleton's brother-in-law, described being on the phone with him when he was shot, while local resident John Bray spoke about driving past Appleton's car when the shooting happened. He was the first to find his body and identified Hardin as the shooter. 'I heard what I thought was someone had fired a rifle,' he said. 'I went back and I seen it looked like he had been shot,' he added, wiping away tears. The documentary also includes security video of Hardin at a restaurant with his family just after the shooting and the police interrogation in which he tells law enforcement he has "the right to be silent' and opted not to give a statement. Authorities are using canines, drones and helicopters to search the rugged northern Arkansas terrain, Champion said. Although he did not reveal the exact areas of the search, he did say it has expanded as more time has elapsed since the escape. Officials have faced challenges searching the areas as it's very rocky and heavy rain has fallen in recent days. The area around the prison is a rural part of the state, which can make Hardin's escape more difficult. In a small community, there's a higher chance someone will recognize him and alert the authorities, said Craig Caine, a retired inspector with the U.S. Marshals who has handled many cases involving escaped prisoners. The Division of Correction and the Division of Community Correction are following leads with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
Hamilton Spectator
7 days ago
- Hamilton Spectator
What we know about the escape of a former police chief and convicted killer in Arkansas
CALICO ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Officials scoured Arkansas' rugged Ozark Mountains for a former police chief and convicted killer who escaped from prison over the weekend. Grant Hardin, who briefly served as police chief for the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving a decades-long sentence for murder and rape . Known as the 'Devil in the Ozarks,' he escaped Sunday from the North Central Unit, a medium-security prison in Calico Rock. Hardin's escape happened days after 10 men fled a New Orleans jail by going through a hole behind a toilet . Eight of those fugitives have since been captured . Here's what to know about Hardin and his escape: How did he escape? Hardin escaped from the prison Sunday afternoon by disguising himself and wearing an outfit meant 'to mimic law enforcement,' corrections officials said. The outfit was not a standard inmate or correctional uniform, said Rand Champion, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Corrections. Officials are working to determine how he was either able to get the uniform or manufacture it himself. Video surveillance shows Hardin escaped at about 2:55 p.m. on Sunday, Champion said. Officials announced his escape about two hours later. But how he got out of the prison and escaped into a rural part of the state, as well as whether he had any help is still unclear. Prison officials say they are investigating what led up to the escape 'to help determine any assistance he may have had.' Champion said the decision to house Hardin in a medium-security facility, which has a capacity of about 800 people, weighed the 'needs of the different facilities and inmates' and 'assessments' of his crimes. Why was he in prison? Hardin had been held at the Calico Rock prison since 2017 after pleading guilty to first-degree murder for fatally shooting James Appleton, 59. Appleton, a Gateway water department employee, was shot in the head in 2017. Police found his body inside a car. Hardin was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Hardin's DNA was entered into the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, and it matched the 1997 rape of a teacher at an elementary school in Rogers, north of Fayetteville. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison for that crime. He was a police officer in Eureka Springs at that time. His short tenure as police chief Hardin became police chief of Gateway, a town of about 450 people, in 2016. Virtually overnight, people in the community described in the HBO documentary 'Devil in the Ozarks' a dramatic shift. 'He was out chasing cars for no reason,' said Cheryl Tillman, one of Appleton's sisters. 'He was pulling guns on the citizens here in Gateway and then as time went on with him being the police chief things just started going down hill fast.' The documentary revealed a crucial run-in between Hardin and Appleton in the Spring of 2016 in which Appleton stood up to Hardin about fixing a police car. A Benton county sheriff's office lieutenant described several times when they got into each other's faces and the dislike they both felt toward one another. The city council gave him an ultimatum: resign or be fired. He stepped down four months after taking the position and nine months later, he killed Appleton. The 'Devil in the Ozarks' documentary Hardin was the focus of a popular 2023 HBO documentary, 'Devil in the Ozarks,' that featured interviews with everyone from the victim of the 1997 rape and sisters of the murder victim to Hardin's family. It revealed key details about the bubbling resentment Hardin felt towards Appleton as well as revealing accounts of the moments right before and after the murder. Then Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, who was Appleton's brother-in-law, described being on the phone with him when he was shot, while local resident John Bray spoke about driving past Appleton's car when the shooting happened. He was the first to find his body and identified Hardin as the shooter. 'I heard what I thought was someone had fired a riffle,' he said. 'I went back and I seen it looked like he had been shot,' he added, wiping away tears. The documentary also includes security video of Hardin at a restaurant with his family just after the shooting and the police interrogation in which he tells law enforcement he has 'the right to be silent' and opted not to give a statement. The search for Hardin Authorities are using canines, drones and helicopters to search the rugged northern Arkansas terrain, Champion said. Although he did not reveal the exact areas of the search, he did say it has expanded as more time has elapsed since the escape. Officials have faced challenges searching the areas as it's very rocky and heavy rain has fallen in recent days. The area around the prison is a rural part of the state, which can make Hardin's escape more difficult. In a small community, there's a higher chance someone will recognize him and alert the authorities, said Craig Caine, a retired inspector with the U.S. Marshals who has handled many cases involving escaped prisoners. The Division of Correction and the Division of Community Correction are following leads with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
San Francisco Chronicle
7 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
What we know about the escape of a former police chief and convicted killer in Arkansas
This undated photo provided by the Arkansas Department of Corrections Communications Department shows inmate Grant Hardin. (Arkansas Department of Corrections Communications Department via AP) AP This undated photo provided by the Arkansas Department of Corrections Communications Department shows inmate Grant Hardin. (Arkansas Department of Corrections Communications Department via AP) AP CALICO ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Officials scoured Arkansas' rugged Ozark Mountains for a former police chief and convicted killer who escaped from prison over the weekend. Grant Hardin, who briefly served as police chief for the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving a decades-long sentence for murder and rape. Known as the 'Devil in the Ozarks,' he escaped Sunday from the North Central Unit, a medium-security prison in Calico Rock. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Hardin's escape happened days after 10 men fled a New Orleans jail by going through a hole behind a toilet. Eight of those fugitives have since been captured. Here's what to know about Hardin and his escape: How did he escape? Hardin escaped from the prison Sunday afternoon by disguising himself and wearing an outfit meant 'to mimic law enforcement," corrections officials said. The outfit was not a standard inmate or correctional uniform, said Rand Champion, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Corrections. Officials are working to determine how he was either able to get the uniform or manufacture it himself. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Video surveillance shows Hardin escaped at about 2:55 p.m. on Sunday, Champion said. Officials announced his escape about two hours later. But how he got out of the prison and escaped into a rural part of the state, as well as whether he had any help is still unclear. Prison officials say they are investigating what led up to the escape 'to help determine any assistance he may have had.' Champion said the decision to house Hardin in a medium-security facility, which has a capacity of about 800 people, weighed the 'needs of the different facilities and inmates' and 'assessments' of his crimes. Why was he in prison? Hardin had been held at the Calico Rock prison since 2017 after pleading guilty to first-degree murder for fatally shooting James Appleton, 59. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Appleton, a Gateway water department employee, was shot in the head in 2017. Police found his body inside a car. Hardin was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Hardin's DNA was entered into the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, and it matched the 1997 rape of a teacher at an elementary school in Rogers, north of Fayetteville. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison for that crime. He was a police officer in Eureka Springs at that time. His short tenure as police chief Hardin became police chief of Gateway, a town of about 450 people, in 2016. Virtually overnight, people in the community described in the HBO documentary 'Devil in the Ozarks' a dramatic shift. Advertisement Article continues below this ad 'He was out chasing cars for no reason," said Cheryl Tillman, one of Appleton's sisters. "He was pulling guns on the citizens here in Gateway and then as time went on with him being the police chief things just started going down hill fast.' The documentary revealed a crucial run-in between Hardin and Appleton in the Spring of 2016 in which Appleton stood up to Hardin about fixing a police car. A Benton county sheriff's office lieutenant described several times when they got into each other's faces and the dislike they both felt toward one another. The city council gave him an ultimatum: resign or be fired. He stepped down four months after taking the position and nine months later, he killed Appleton. The 'Devil in the Ozarks' documentary Hardin was the focus of a popular 2023 HBO documentary, 'Devil in the Ozarks,' that featured interviews with everyone from the victim of the 1997 rape and sisters of the murder victim to Hardin's family. Advertisement Article continues below this ad It revealed key details about the bubbling resentment Hardin felt towards Appleton as well as revealing accounts of the moments right before and after the murder. Then Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, who was Appleton's brother-in-law, described being on the phone with him when he was shot, while local resident John Bray spoke about driving past Appleton's car when the shooting happened. He was the first to find his body and identified Hardin as the shooter. 'I heard what I thought was someone had fired a riffle,' he said. 'I went back and I seen it looked like he had been shot,' he added, wiping away tears. The documentary also includes security video of Hardin at a restaurant with his family just after the shooting and the police interrogation in which he tells law enforcement he has "the right to be silent' and opted not to give a statement. The search for Hardin Authorities are using canines, drones and helicopters to search the rugged northern Arkansas terrain, Champion said. Although he did not reveal the exact areas of the search, he did say it has expanded as more time has elapsed since the escape. Officials have faced challenges searching the areas as it's very rocky and heavy rain has fallen in recent days. The area around the prison is a rural part of the state, which can make Hardin's escape more difficult. In a small community, there's a higher chance someone will recognize him and alert the authorities, said Craig Caine, a retired inspector with the U.S. Marshals who has handled many cases involving escaped prisoners. The Division of Correction and the Division of Community Correction are following leads with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
