Three prominent civil rights organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), alleging that the agency has withheld crucial details regarding its extensive collection of DNA from noncitizens.
The lawsuit was initiated by the Georgetown Center on Privacy and Technology, the Amica Center for Immigrants Rights in Northwest D.C., and Americans for Immigrant Justice in Miami after DHS failed to respond meaningfully to their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted in the summer of 2024.
Following over nine months without a substantial reply from the agency, the civil rights groups argue that the lack of transparency around the practices related to DNA collection is unacceptable.
Their original FOIA request aimed to uncover the methodologies employed by DHS to collect, store, and utilize DNA samples from noncitizens.
The organizations assert that this DNA collection effort has resulted in an alarming increase in the FBI’s criminal DNA database (CODIS), reporting an astonishing expansion of over 5,000 percent since 2020.
“This information comes at a critical moment in national immigration policy,” the groups emphasized in their press release, highlighting that the current administration is consistently carrying out enforcement actions—like detention and deportation—targeting noncitizens, irrespective of their lawful presence in the United States.
Critics of the program argue that the collection of DNA often occurs under coercive and legally uncertain situations, with a disproportionate impact on people of color.
Stevie Glaberson, director of research and advocacy for the Privacy Center, noted, “The Department of Homeland Security has built out a massive DNA-collection program, quickly becoming the primary contributor of DNA profiles to the nation’s criminal policing DNA database, CODIS.”
“DHS is doing so despite collecting DNA from people accused of no crime and while operating with none of the constraints that are supposed to be in place before the government compels someone to give over their most sensitive personal information,” Glaberson added.
Emily Tucker, executive director at the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, argued that the administration’s actions represent more than just immigration enforcement.
She stated, “To the contrary, Trump is using immigration powers as the vehicle for the activities of a militarized police force, a weapon he can wield broadly and violently without having to navigate obstacles in the form of transparency, accountability, or oversight.”
Tucker further claimed that the DNA-collection program is designed to instill fear in those opposing the administration’s policies.
“The Department’s DNA-collection program is one piece of a massive dragnet that sweeps in information about all of us not just to fuel deportation—although it does—but primarily to intimidate and silence those who would oppose him,” she said.
The ongoing lawsuit aims to unveil details about this controversial program that has serious implications for civil liberties.
Daniel Melo, senior attorney at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, underscored the significance of this lawsuit for the communities impacted.
“As immigration enforcement agencies continue to deploy sophisticated tools to target, surveil, and arbitrarily detain noncitizens,” Melo said, “the community most impacted by these policy choices has a right to know how, when, and why genetic material is being taken, stored, and used against noncitizens—potentially indefinitely—simply because they were not born in the United States.”
Tucker also pointed out that the DNA collection program endangers individual rights and justice.
“Secretive government surveillance programs, like the wide-scale and unprecedented program to collect and store noncitizen DNA, are a threat to freedom and safety for citizens and noncitizens alike,” Tucker stated.
With their legal action, the organizations assert that the Freedom of Information Act demands government transparency.
“When the government attempts to ignore this demand, Americans for Immigrant Justice is committed to pursuing transparency and accountability.”
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