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U.S. to Collect DNA of All Undocumented Migrants:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is developing a plan to take DNA samples from each of the undocumented immigrants and store it in a national database for criminal DNA profiles, they 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.
[...] Officials said they were in fact required to take the DNA samples by rules about the handling of arrested and convicted people that were issued by the Justice Department in 2006 and 2010, but which had not been implemented.
They said the program for collecting DNA was still 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.
"Forced DNA collection raises serious privacy and civil liberties concerns and lacks justification, especially when DHS is already using less intrusive identification methods like fingerprinting," Vera Eidelman, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
"This kind of mass collection also alters the purpose of DNA collection from one of criminal investigation to population surveillance, which is contrary to our basic notions of freedom and autonomy," Eidelman said.
If it becomes okay to do this to "them", how long will it take before they want to do it to "us"?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 03 2019, @05:56PM (5 children)
Is there a federal agency other than ICE you feel comfortable with the local police exercising their independence of? How about the FBI?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 03 2019, @07:38PM (3 children)
Yep. State cannabis legalization is an excellent example.
What's more, state and local police are *not* required to enforce Federal laws. If the Federal government wants to enforce its laws, it can do so.
As such, the local police can and do exercise their independence from Federal agencies. You're not real familiar with the legal system in the US, are you? Are you an immigrant (not that there's anything wrong with that) or just woefully uninformed?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 03 2019, @07:41PM (2 children)
The federal government granted a waiver for this, so its fine.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomangell/2019/06/20/congress-votes-to-block-feds-from-enforcing-marijuana-laws-in-legal-states/#4e3dede4b62e [forbes.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 03 2019, @07:58PM
Yeah...not so much.
While the underlying bill (https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3055 -- the cannabis bit is Amendment 398 [congress.gov]) was passed by the House.
However, the bill has not even been taken up by the Senate, much less passed by that house. As such, It hasn't been presented to the President for signature. Which is how stuff becomes the law. Funny how that works, eh?
So, as the old song goes, the bill/amendment is, "I'm just a bill, I'm only a bill. And I'm sittin' here on Capitol Hill. But I'm hopin' and I'm prayin' that someday I'm gonna be a law."
Nice try though. Keep working on it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 03 2019, @07:58PM
Yeah...not so much.
While the underlying bill (https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3055 -- the cannabis bit is Amendment 398 [congress.gov]) was passed by the House.
However, the bill has not even been taken up by the Senate, much less passed by that house. As such, It hasn't been presented to the President for signature. Which is how stuff becomes the law. Funny how that works, eh?
So, as the old song goes, the bill/amendment is, "I'm just a bill, I'm only a bill. And I'm sittin' here on Capitol Hill. But I'm hopin' and I'm prayin' that someday I'm gonna be a law."
Nice try though. Keep working on it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 03 2019, @10:51PM
Since you apparently don't know, the FBI typically will wait for a local jurisdiction to invite them. Even when there is some sort of federal issue at stake they prefer to wait to be invited in. The only example I can think of where they don't wait for an invitation is if there are serious federal issues (e.g., civil rights) where it appears that local law enforcement is either the perpetrator or not properly enforcing the law. Even then, they do so reluctantly as the locals tend to be mighty resentful and uncooperative in such cases.