Report: Raiding the Genome: How the United States Government Is Abusing Its Immigration Powers to Amass DNA for Future Policing

Sponk, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Today, the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology published a new (108 page!) report entitled Raiding the Genome: How the United States Government Is Abusing Its Immigration Powers to Amass DNA for Future Policing. Here are the one-sentence versions of their seven key takeaways:

1. Since 2020, DHS has added more than 1.5 million DNA profiles to a national law enforcement database.
2. DHS misleads and intimidates people to get them to submit to DNA collection.
3. DHS is collecting DNA primarily from people of color, creating new risks for already overpoliced communities.
4. This massive expansion of federal DNA-collecting power is the result of several low-profile administrative sleights of hand.
5. The government is exploiting its immigration powers to collect genetic material for policing at a pace that would not be possible using criminal policing powers.
6. DHS’s DNA collection program violates the Fourth Amendment.
7. Indefinite government retention of DNA samples poses major risks to individual rights and democratic self governance, given rapidly advancing technology and political instability in the U.S.

I am making my way through the full report. Looks like some excellent new material to include in my fall crimmigration course.

-KitJ