Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
As if the regular detainment of children isn’t bad enough, documents show that U.S. immigration authorities are adding their DNA to a criminal database. In less than five years, the U.S. has collected DNA samples from over 130,000 minors, including children as young as four.
Since 2020, the US Customs and Border Patrol has ramped up its contributions to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. CODIS stores DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scenes, and missing persons cases for local, state, and federal law enforcement use. The actual, physical DNA samples are stored indefinitely by the federal government. Excluding forensic ones, CODIS currently has 23 million DNA profiles, and as many as 133,539 of them belong to detained children and teenagers, according to documents reviewed by Wired.
According to Wired’s report, CBP collected samples of between 829,000 and 2.8 million people from October 2020 to the end of 2024. This came after 2020 updated regulations surrounding DNA collection from the Department of Justice that removed the Department of Homeland Security’s exemptions. The California Law Review critiqued the DOJ’s decision as one that “may be the first to result in the government’s widespread, permanent retention of genetic materials based solely on a status other than a criminal arrest or conviction.”
To comply with the DOJ’s orders, CBP launched a pilot program that same year to begin collecting more samples from detained immigrants. At the time, CBP said it would collect samples from people between the ages of 14 to 19. However, CBP’s policy gives officers some discretion when it comes to younger children and they have taken advantage of that. Per Wired, CBP obtained samples from as many as 227 children under the age of 13. In one case, CBP officers in El Paso, Texas sent samples from a 4-year old child to the FBI for processing.
“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, assistant commissioner of public affairs at CBP, told Wired. “Toward this end, CBP collects DNA samples for submission to [CODIS] from person 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.”
However, Stephanie Glaberson, the director of research and advocacy at Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology, told Gizmodo via email, “The revelation that CBP collected DNA from a 4-year-old and added it to CODIS brings the absurdity of the government’s DNA program into sharp relief.”
Recently, the Center released a report stating that CBP has added 1.5 million DNA profiles to CODIS since 2020 where they are now housed under the “offender” label. Overall, ICE and CBP’s number of collected samples has increased by 5,000 percent but those numbers are even more shocking when broken down into smaller periods of time. According to Wired, officers in Laredo, Texas submitted as many as 3,930 DNA samples to the FBI with 252 listed as 17 or younger. Every sample was collected on a single day in January 2024.
Two years ago, the FBI requested a massive increase in funding to continue maintaining the system. With immigration authorities’ contributions, CODIS is likely to continue ballooning exponentially. As Georgetown’s report explained, there are several limitations on criminal law enforcement obtaining DNA samples. When it comes to immigrants, however, the only limitation is that they must be detained.
“The meaning of the term ‘detained’ in the immigration context is notoriously broad, vague, and ever-shifting,” the report stated. “And unlike in the criminal legal systems, ICE and CBP agents do not have to get judicial authorization to detain someone. There is no process for checking to make sure that every time they do detain someone, they meet constitutional requirements.”
“The lack of procedural safeguards means that DHS can amass data at a much quicker rate than police can, but all of the DNS DHS takes is accessible to the police,” the report added.
“No matter the age of the individuals compelled to hand over this most sensitive information, this program is morally bankrupt and unconstitutional,” Glaberson told Gizmodo. “Collecting migrants’ DNA like this serves no legitimate immigration purpose. What it does is place these individuals, their families, and communities under watch for life, and brings us all one huge step closer to genetic surveillance.”
(Score: 5, Informative) by epitaxial on Tuesday June 10, @12:24PM (1 child)
Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.
Modern day brown shirts at work.
(Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Tuesday June 10, @05:16PM
Agreed, they're much safer back at home than here in the USA. They should definitely stay home where its safer.
(Score: 2) by HeadlineEditor on Tuesday June 10, @01:12PM (4 children)
Maybe Tajikistan won't take your DNA. Or maybe they will! Go there and find out.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 10, @05:05PM (3 children)
For what it's worth: European courts have ruled that collection of DNA is not legal unless there is a reasonable suspicion based on other evidence that the person whose DNA is being collected has committed some kind of crime, and they aren't allowed to keep that DNA after the person it was taken from has been determined to be not guilty.
This is in keeping with an overall trend of EU governments generally considering the US way of doing things to be barbaric and invasive and rather authoritarian.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1, Troll) by HeadlineEditor on Tuesday June 10, @07:23PM (2 children)
For what it's worth, the USA doesn't owe foreign nationals anything. They're free to go migrate somewhere their DNA isn't collected. Somehow they still keep coming here, though....
(Score: 5, Touché) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 10, @07:48PM (1 child)
Yes we do:
- The Bill of Rights refers to "people", not "citizens". A lawful US government, therefor, follows it, and does not engage in an unreasonable search without probable cause or judicial approval.
- The Geneva Conventions and many other treaties are supposed to bind US treatment of foreigners.
And lastly, if these people have not been subject to some kind of due process, there has been no determination at all about whether they're really foreign nationals or US citizens.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 4, Informative) by ikanreed on Tuesday June 10, @09:03PM
In fact, the US government holds the completely unconstitutional position that you must prove your citizenship to them rather than having any sort of obligation to prove your wrongdoing beyond a reasonable doubt.
You so much as breathe the word "Foreign" and a third of this country's population says "Toss all my rights in the trash, please"
(Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Tuesday June 10, @01:30PM (17 children)
Sounds like a good idea given the crime rates.
Must not be too offensive, or they would stop arriving.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 10, @02:13PM
given that your commander-in-chief and his vp falsely claimed immigrants are eating cats, why would you base anything on what your government labels 'crime rates'?
(Score: 3, Funny) by gnuman on Tuesday June 10, @02:20PM
Did you volunteer? Can't be too sure, maybe a relative sample is somewhere and you would really help, you know. Real patriots volunteer their DNA!
(Score: 5, Touché) by pe1rxq on Tuesday June 10, @03:26PM (6 children)
So collecting DNA from four year old kids will lower crime rates?
Is it a crime to be smarter than you?
(Score: 2) by DadaDoofy on Tuesday June 10, @06:57PM (5 children)
"So collecting DNA from four year old kids will lower crime rates?"
Since you asked, yes, absolutely it can. If that child's DNA comes up in a CODIS search as a partial match to DNA found at a crime scene, the child's criminal relative can be forensically linked to that scene. And yes, catching, convicting and locking up criminals reduces crime.
(Score: 5, Touché) by weirsbaski on Tuesday June 10, @09:29PM (3 children)
The obvious extension to your reasoning is that we should collect DNA from everybody, to forensically link even more criminals to their crimes.
(Score: 1, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Tuesday June 10, @10:59PM (2 children)
Maybe your extension, not mine. Even far-left failed vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz admitted in the final debate with JD Vance, “We have 320,000 children that the Department of Homeland Security has effectively lost” Why wouldn't we want to use every tool legally available to recover those poor lost children and save them from human trafficking?
(Score: 2, Troll) by weirsbaski on Wednesday June 11, @02:41AM (1 child)
Your reply works just as well with the obvious extension- if we collect DNA from all Americans, we can reunite American children separated with their American parents. Why wouldn't we want to use every tool legally available to recover those poor lost children also and save them from human trafficking?
(Score: 0, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Wednesday June 11, @10:09AM
Why? Is it legal to collect DNA from all Americans? Explain.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by pe1rxq on Tuesday June 10, @09:31PM
Nuking a whole country also reduces crime rates to zero. That does not make it a good idea.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 10, @03:59PM (2 children)
Found the Trumptard. Everyone drink.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 10, @10:04PM
Found the idiot with TDS. Did you look at the dates above? 2020-2024 was Biden and the Democrats.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 11, @02:24AM
Bingo, shir. Sir.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Thexalon on Wednesday June 11, @01:46AM (4 children)
You mean the crime rate that's has been dropping [cjis.gov] over the last few years, as part of an ongoing strong downward trend that's been going on for the past 30+ years?
I know that's not what some politicians and news sources tell you has been happening, but that's what police are recording.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by DadaDoofy on Wednesday June 11, @10:38AM
Just because the FBI changed reporting systems and a significant number of jurisdictions could not report crimes doesn't mean crime is dropping.
"In an effort to fully modernize the system, the FBI stopped taking data from the old summary system and only accepted data through the new system. Thousands of police agencies fell through the cracks because they didn’t catch up with the changes on time.
More than 6,000 law enforcement agencies were missing from the FBI’s national crime data last year, representing nearly one-third of the nation’s 18,000 police agencies. This means a quarter of the U.S. population wasn't represented in the federal crime data last year"
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/07/13/fbi-crime-rates-data-gap-nibrs [themarshallproject.org]
Just because less criminals are being arrested and less crimes are being reported doesn't mean the crime rate is dropping.
"While the violent crime rate reported to police fell by 1.7% between 2021 and 2022, the National Crime Victimization Survey shows that total violent crime (reported and non-reported) rose from 16.5 to 23.5 per 100,000 — a 42.4% increase"
https://crimeresearch.org/2024/04/the-collapse-in-law-enforcement-as-arrest-rates-plummet-people-have-been-less-willing-to-report-crime/ [crimeresearch.org]
Even far-left MSN had this to say.
"According to the FBI statistics, murders decreased by 26.4%, rapes were down by 25.7%, robbery decreased by 17.8%, aggravated assault was down by 12.5%, and property crime was lower by 15% in the first quarter.
But Lott said those statistics make up less than 45% of the violent crimes that are committed in the U.S. and only 32% of property crimes. Victims are not reporting incidents as often because they don't believe anyone will be punished, he said."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/fbi-stats-show-plunge-in-violent-crime-but-theres-a-catch/ar-BB1o2rvq [msn.com]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday June 11, @03:10PM (2 children)
As though there's a crime thermostat and we should aspire to keep it at a high constant value LOL
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday June 11, @04:24PM (1 child)
No: As though politicians lie to manufacture a crisis where none exists to justify doing stuff they want to do anyways, like, say, making a database of every person they want to control with their DNA, fingerprints, facial recognition data, license plates to any vehicle they might have access to, addresses where they might be located, employment history, purchasing habits, health conditions, beliefs and thoughts that they've stated publicly, who they are likely to have voted for, what weapons they might have access to, which other people they know, any interactions they've had with any law enforcement agency, etc etc etc.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Wednesday June 11, @04:31PM
They would be safer outside the USA, then, and should definitely not come here.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 10, @02:02PM (2 children)
What, is there another kind?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Tuesday June 10, @02:41PM
Well, I suggest lawful states should maintain databases of orderly people instead of criminal databases, that would require much less storage capacity.
Anyone not found in orderly database should be considered a criminal by default.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Thexalon on Wednesday June 11, @01:48AM
Yes, although I can understand why those who have been stuck on Oracle for most of their careers might think otherwise.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2, Troll) by looorg on Tuesday June 10, @02:08PM
Without making a big deal about it I think this is more that you add it to what you have then any kind of necessary malicious intent. You use what you have, government laziness instead of reinventing the wheel. You have a db for samples. So you use it. Getting approval and funding for a new db might take eons. But it would in that regard be better if they had an immigration-db instead of adding it to a criminal-db. Even tho the two could technically overlap if you consider illegal immigration as a crime.
But no they don't think that four year olds are criminals. This is just media or advocate hyperbole. That said just cause someone was as young as four doesn't mean the db is filled with toddlers and children. Most of them are probably closer to being teenagers.
This is probably a lot more representative of the usage then that they are tagging in a bunch of four year olds. It usually is different from country to country what the age is when you are deemed to be responsible for your own, criminal, actions. But from around 15+ it's not hard to find actual criminals.
Young people in that regard are disproportionately more criminally active then middle aged or older sections of the population. You age out of crime is a fairly common idea or concept in Criminology. Nothing lowers crime rate in that regard as getting old, getting married and having children. Starting a "life" if you will, as always there are exceptions.
Also 252 cases. Out of thousands. Many many thousands of samples. Someone lost track of the big picture here.
You could make a case for it in tho that makes sense. That these people that have no citizenship might be assumed to perhaps fall into that segment of the population that is in the country illegally so one avenue for them is a life of crime. But perhaps it would be better to have an immigration-db then instead of putting said samples into a criminal-db. If nothing else for appearance sake, after all it's not hard to submit the query to search multiple different databases.
There might also be a good reasons for the children being there. To attach them to their actual parents. If they get lost or themselves become victims of crime. Also then to track potential criminal parents and relatives thru the children if you are just comparing samples from crime scenes.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edinlinux on Tuesday June 10, @05:41PM (4 children)
It is not exactly clear, but it sounds like from the article that the US govt is getting and keeping DNA samples of people who are illegally in the United States (including kids who also were brought here illegally / immigrated here illegally).
I'm not sure why or how that is a problem.. If you don't want your kids to get their DNA collected, then don't bring them illegally into someone else's country. I'd expect the same from any other country if I did the same thing with my own kids.
On the other hand, if they are doing this with bona fide legit US citizens, that is a different story altogether, but that does not seem to be the case here..
(Score: 2, Troll) by Dr Spin on Tuesday June 10, @06:28PM
You might want to read up on Nazi Germany in the 1930's.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Tuesday June 10, @07:10PM
Kinda. It sounds like some of these cases are child trafficking, which isn't quite the same as illegal immigrant.
In either case, it does seem to make sense to track their DNA, for many reasons (e.g., to reunite them with their rightful parents, to figure out if they are being trafficked, or to identify if they're illegal immigrants if they get released into a sanctuary state, etc.)
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday June 11, @01:58AM
It sounds like they are doing this before there has been any determination of whether the person is here legally, with very young children who are not being represented by any adult or legal council, which means that citizens, legal residents, and illegal immigrants would all be affected and any alleged consent for the procedure is questionable at best.
I also find it interesting that you appear to think it's morally and legally OK to punish or track children because their parents committed a crime.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 11, @02:34AM
Fucking boot licker.