The DNA data of migrants and their children ends up in a common repository, where samples of the criminals’ genetic information are presented, the British media write, citing American researchers. Human rights activists and the liberal media, who consider the practice offensive, are outraged by “Genetic surveillance.” At the same time, migration services are trying to expand information about migrants to prevent crimes, and they do this regardless of who holds power in the White House.
The number of DNA samples of migrants in the databases of American law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, has reached about 1.5 million over the past three years and has increased 50-fold, according to scientists at Georgetown University and the Center for Privacy and Technology supervised by it.
The samples were collected mainly by the US Customs and Border Protection Service. The youngest participant of the “program” turned out to be a 4-year-old child. The children’s DNA samples went straight to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), Wired notes. There were more than 133.5 thousand such cases. All this was published by the Customs and Border Service itself without unnecessary comments on its part. 227 samples were taken from people under 13 years of age.
But the Ministry of Justice noted that collecting DNA samples should help prevent crimes in the future. Human rights activists are outraged by the situation: it turns out that children not only get on the same list as rapists and murderers, but they are also seen as future criminals from an early age. Moreover, the Ministry of Justice explicitly stated that it would now be possible to initially determine the “danger level” of a particular person. That is, the press service of the department, in fact, recognized that the children would initially be labeled.
However, there is little doubt that DNA samples will make it easier to identify criminals than it was before.
It is also noteworthy that the active collection of genetic information did not begin under the current White House administration, because three years ago, the term of President Joseph Biden was in full swing. The question arises: to what extent were the actions of the border guards and law enforcement officers sanctioned by the democratic administration? Recall that until 2022, the Democrats generally dominated the political arena of the United States, including the White House and both houses of Congress.
As for the administration of US President Donald Trump, although not all Americans are satisfied with its harsh course, however, they do not have many disagreements with the head of state in the field of migration policy.
Nevertheless, the border guards, having more and more powers, sometimes act excessively rudely. Thus, the story of the visa revocation and the charges of smuggling of the Russian scientist Ksenia Petrova became high-profile (see NG dated 05/29/25). The outrage of the public and the media was not related to Petrova’s citizenship, but to the fact that she, a law-abiding scientist from Harvard University, was treated almost like a repeat offender. Although Americans generally agree that citizens of other countries with criminal records should be deported, many of them also recognize that mistakes are possible in the case of the “conveyor method.”
Now the Supreme Court’s decision on Saturday is also causing concern. He allowed the Trump administration to suspend the humanitarian program for temporary asylum, introduced under Biden. This causes uncertainty in the situation of more than 500,000 migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua, The New York Times notes.