All illegal migrants to have DNA stored: US

THE US government plans to collect the DNA of all migrants deta i ned a f ter enter i ng t he c ou nt r y i l le g a l l y, of f ic i a l s said on Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Securit y (DHS) is developi ng a pla n to ta ke DNA sa mples f rom each of t he undocumented immigrants and store it in a national database for crimina l DNA prof i les, t hey said.

Speaking to journalists on grounds of anonymity, DHS officials said the new policy would give immigration and border control agents a broader picture of the migrant and detainee situation.

And stored on the FBI’s Codis DNA database, it could also be used by others in law enforcement and beyond.

“It does enhance our ability to further identify someone who has illegally entered the country,” said one official.

“It will assist ot her organisations as well in t heir ident if icat ion abilit y.”

Officials said they were required to take the DNA samples by rules about the handling of arrested and convicted people that were issued by the US Justice Department in 2006 and 2010, but which had not been implemented.

They said t he programme for col lect ing DNA was st i l l being developed, and they did not have a date set for implementation.

Collecting and storing the DNA of people simply detained and not tried or convicted of a crime has drawn criticism from civil rights advocates.

“For c e d DNA c ol le c t ion r a i ses ser ious pr iv ac y a nd civ i l l iber t ies concer ns a nd lacks just if icat ion, especia l ly when DHS is a l ready usi ng less i nt r usive ident i f icat ion met hod s l i ke f i nger pr i nti n g ,” Ve r a E i de l ma n , a n attorney wit h t he America n Civ i l Liber t ies Union, sa id in a statement.

“This k ind of mass collection also alters the purpose of DNA collection from one of criminal investigation to population sur veillance, which is contrar y to our basic notions of freedom and autonomy,” Eidelman said.

Earlier this year the US Border Patrol began performing “rapid DNA” tests on migrants who cross the border as fami ly units to determine if t he indiv idua ls were related and were not making fraudulent cla ims.

The new programme will collect much more genetic information than that programme and will store it.

“This is fundamentally different from rapid DNA,” said a second official. “This is a morefull scope DNA profile.”