Migrant Children Are Being Added To A Criminal DNA Database Just Because

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the dehumanization-at-scale dept

Each day adds another layer of fucked-upness to this country’s anti-immigration efforts. We, as a nation, are now involved daily in extrajudicial renditioning of migrants to countries they’ve never lived in. We’re all implicated in nearly daily rejections of court orders and any remaining shred of human decency. We’re treating human beings like trash to be discarded, whether it’s mothers seeking abortions or migrants just hoping to find somewhere more stable to live.

And now we’re doing this: intermingling children in a massive criminal database for no other reason than they (or their parents) weren’t born in the United States. Here’s Dhruv Mehrotra with more details at Wired:

The United States government has collected DNA samples from upwards of 133,000 migrant children and teenagers—including at least one 4-year-old—and uploaded their genetic data into a national criminal database used by local, state, and federal law enforcement, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.

The records, quietly released by the US Customs and Border Protection earlier this year, offer the most detailed look to date at the scale of CBP’s controversial DNA collection program. They reveal for the first time just how deeply the government’s biometric surveillance reaches into the lives of migrant children, some of whom may still be learning to read or tie their shoes—yet whose DNA is now stored in a system originally built for convicted sex offenders and violent criminals.

The DOJ claims this is essential, even though it didn’t decide to start adding this particular data to the database until 22 years after its creation. According to DOJ statements, the addition of minors and migrants to a criminal database (CODIS [Combined DNA Index System], which is run by the FBI) is essential to the safety of the nation, allowing law enforcement to “assess” the threat posed by 4-year-old children to the general public due to their… um… lack of US citizenship.

The addition of migrant data dates back to the last few months of Trump’s first presidency. This went unaltered during Biden’s term.

Spanning from October 2020 through the end of 2024, the records show that CBP swabbed the cheeks of between 829,000 and 2.8 million people, with experts estimating that the true figure, excluding duplicates, is likely well over 1.5 million. That number includes as many as 133,539 children and teenagers. 

The CODIS database is there to track criminals and was originally used to compile DNA samples and fingerprints only from those being criminally charged. Since then, it has been expanded to cover people who have, in many cases, done nothing more than reside in the United States without proper documentation.

People who use the term “illegal immigrants” or “illegal aliens” seem to think that being in this country without documentation is a criminal act in and of itself. And it is, but only to a certain extent. It’s a civil offense though, like not paying property taxes or getting a parking ticket. Do some of these things often enough and you might see criminal charges. But, generally speaking, no one’s getting fingerprinted and their DNA added to CODIS just because they didn’t feed the meter or fall behind on property tax payments.

For some reason, this nation has recently begun to believe it’s acceptable to treat certain civil violators like criminals if that makes it easier to deny them rights or, in this case, add them to a forever database just because there’s no court order or law preventing them from doing this.

It’s the sort of thing that dehumanizes migrants by turning them into database records. It further strips them of their humanity by adding them to a long list of actual criminals with the insinuation being that (1) they’re no less guilty than the criminals in the database, and (2) if they haven’t committed a crime yet, they’re probably going to, so why not be proactive.

For all the ugliness we’re witnessing during Trump’s second administration in terms of antipathy towards migrants, it’s important to point out that what’s been observed so far is directly attributable to Trump’s predecessor, who did nearly nothing to roll back Trump’s anti-immigrant policies.

The data, which CBP published to its website in February, shows that DNA collection accelerated under the Biden administration, with daily submissions to CODIS increasing sharply in 2024 alongside a reported rise in border apprehensions. On a single day in January 2024, for example, the Laredo, Texas, field office submitted as many as 3,930 DNA samples to the FBI—252 were listed as 17 or younger, CBP records show.

The bottom line is this: there’s no way any federal or local law enforcement officer should be adding a four-year-old to a criminal database. It’s impossible to think of any scenario where this addition is justified. For that matter, no minor who is not suspected of committing a crime should be in there either, especially if the only reason for adding them is just because the opportunity (detention by immigration officers) presented itself. A civil infraction is not a criminal offense, no matter how much three consecutive presidential administrations would prefer to believe. This is a travesty, aided and abetted by two presidents who decided the loudest, most hateful people in the nation should have a say in how immigration enforcement is carried out.

Filed Under: cbp, codis, criminal database, data, dhs, dna, doj, migrants, privacy