The U.S. Department of Justice is rolling out its long-awaited plan to collect the DNA from what could be hundreds of thousands of detained immigrants, including asylum seekers.
The nationwide collection is set to begin in April.
The Department of Justice said it's relying on a 2005 law passed by Congress, called the DNA Fingerprint Act. It requires federal agencies to "collect DNA from individuals who are arrested, facing charges, or convicted or from non-United States persons who are arrested."
In January, U.S. Customs and Border Protection began a pilot program for DNA collection in Michigan and Texas. The agency forcibly gathered genetic information from immigrants arrested in the Detroit area or who presented at themselves at a port of entry in southwest Texas.
The Trump administration announced this week it’s expanding that program. The DNA will get uploaded to an FBI database. The Justice Department first proposed the plan in October.
This latest effort comes amid the federal government's increased immigration enforcement in sanctuary cities across the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun using subpoenas to get information from law enforcement agencies that don't cooperate with the agency. ICE has been successful in Oregon, California and New York.
Related: Oregon Was 1st Sanctuary Community In US To Respond To ICE Subpoenas
CBP has also deployed tactical units to assist ICE in sanctuary cities.
The Justice Department argues DNA sample collection is like a fingerprint and a reasonable search under the Fourth Amendment.
Immigrant rights activists said the program doesn't improve national security.
“Congress should immediately prevent any taxpayer dollars from being used to fund this xenophobic program, which seeks to further dehumanize immigrants in detention and raises significant civil liberties and privacy concerns," said Naureen Shah, senior advocacy and policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union.
Portland immigration attorney Stephen Manning called CBP a "rogue and unaccountable police" force and argued the DNA collection has widespread implications beyond immigrant communities.
"All things like this start in the immigration space, get normalized and then jump" to others parts of society, Manning said.
