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Excerpt from www.latimes.com
Routine collection of immigrants’ DNA by federal authorities has ballooned since 2020, with a 50-fold spike in the number of samples held in a national database of the sensitive genetic information, according to a report released Tuesday.
In nearly four years, the DNA database — which is shared with law enforcement agencies nationwide — added more than 1.5 million noncitizen profiles, according to the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology. That compares with about 30,000 total samples obtained since 2005, when Congress authorized DNA collection by federal immigration authorities, the study found.
The center said the sharp rise raises questions about whether immigrants’ privacy rights are being violated as well as the overall constitutionality of the program.
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