Sen. Wyden Wants Answers From The DHS About Its Crime Database Full Of Migrant Children’s DNA

Legal Issues

from the because-we're-cruel-bigots-not-likely-to-be-one-of-the-answers dept

To be sure, the DHS is just going to blow off Senator Wyden’s demands for answers, just as it has blown off congressional oversight, court orders, and pretty much the entirety of the US Constitution. (We’re all just waiting to be told we’re obligated to house National Guard troops sent by the administration to whatever state happens to be irritating him at the moment.)

Last month, Dhruv Merota of Wired reported the DHS was now adding DNA collected from migrant children to a criminal database run by the FBI (CODIS [Combined DNA Index System]) and accessible by hundreds of US law enforcement agencies. It was originally created to track dangerous and violent criminals.

Now, for reasons only explained by this administration’s blind hatred of non-white people, more than 133,000 migrant kids (ranging from teens to at least one four-year-old) are now populating a criminal database solely because their parents were undocumented migrants.

DNA is forever and this is a forever database. The government has no obligation to remove anyone from CODIS, which means migrant children are intermingling with dangerous criminals, only a search away from being presumed to be criminals by any law enforcement officer located pretty much anywhere in the United States.

The presumption is that anyone added has been, at the very least, served with criminal charges. But that’s not what happened here. That’s what Ron Wyden’s letter [PDF] makes clear, as he seeks answers he’ll probably never receive from Kristi Noem and/or the multiple immigration-focused agencies she now controls. (h/t Dell Cameron/Wired)

Lots of legitimate concerns are raised by Senator Wyden, starting with this apparent abuse of a criminal database to fill it with a bunch of non-criminal DNA samples.

The Trump administration appears to be broadly detaining individuals and collecting their DNA for permanent storage in CODIS. Reporting also suggests that 97% of noncitizens whose DNA was collected were detained under CBP’s civil authority, and not on any criminal charges.

Of that 97% of non-citizen non-criminals, more than 133,000 were minors, which is something that would normally under a normal regime make these people exempt from DNA collection efforts. Under Trump, however, anyone looking kinda like someone in need of deportation is getting added.

DHS policy states that individuals under the age of 14 are generally exempt from DNA collection, but DHS officials appear to have discretion to collect DNA in certain circumstances. The Executive Branch has not provided any justification for the permanent collection of the children’s DNA samples, or for the storage of children’s genetic information in a system originally designed to ensure public safety from violent criminals.

The end result is this: this DNA collected from migrant children will remain in CODIS forever, accessed every time a law enforcement officer seeks a DNA match from the system. While some people may think this is a victimless crime, the reality is that these kids are treated as criminal suspects during queries (because the database presumes anyone in it is a criminal). When false positives happen (and they will!), innocent children will be treated as criminal suspects despite having done nothing more than… well, being lied to by government agents.

[P]ublic reporting suggests that individuals were not aware of their DNA being collected by federal officials—many individuals thought their cheeks were swabbed by federal agents for the purposes of a COVID-19 test.

Yep, and that’s in addition to the family separation policies deployed by both Trump administrations. Immigration agents have — for several years now — made it a point to break up families, which makes it easier to get migrant kids to do what the government wants without being blocked by parents who might try to invoke their rights or otherwise discourage cooperation with (seemingly unlawful) actions by the US government.

In addition to all of the questions the public deserves answers to, Ron Wyden makes a point that will surely be lost on the fascists currently running the nation.

Governments exercising such broad discretion to involuntarily collect and retain DNA are repressive authoritarian regimes also engaging in gross human rights violations, such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, torture, and more. In fact, the U.S. Government has condemned the involuntary collection of DNA by the People’s Republic of China and has sanctioned entities engaged in this practice, yet this practice appears to be ongoing on our own soil.

Being compared to China with receipts attached is a low point for this nation. But that’s what Trump and his enablers seem to think will finally make America great: domestic surveillance, ethnic cleansing, the silencing of the media, the stripping of public funding from anything that seems remotely altruistic, and deploying the military to “police” cities and states whose the most powerful political figures oppose Trump and his actions. And every bit of info it can collect on the people living in the United States helps, even if its cheek swabs from kids who were told by federal officers they were being checked for possible infections.

Filed Under: 4th amendment, bigotry, dhs, dna, dna database, ice, kristi noem, mass deportation, pam bondi, ron wyden, trump administration