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President Donald Trump attends the signing of the Laken Riley Act in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Advocates for immigration have filed a legal case against the Trump administration, claiming it has not complied with requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) concerning its procedures and policies related to collecting DNA from immigrants residing in the United States, including those not charged with any crime, they assert.
Lawyers representing the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology, Amica Center for Immigrants Rights, and Americans for Immigrant Justice are taking legal action against the Department of Homeland Security. They allege that officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been neglecting FOIA requests made since last year related to DHS’s methods of collecting, storing, and using DNA samples from non-citizens, as reported by the organizations.
“Defendants have failed to make a determination on the requests and failed to disclose the requested documents within the time prescribed by FOIA,” their complaint says. “Therefore, Plaintiffs now file this action for declaratory, injunctive, and other appropriate relief.”
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According to the groups, DHS has been collecting DNA samples of immigrants since 2020. The “constitutionally questionable” program has “radically expanded” since then and is shrouded in secrecy, the groups say.
“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,” explained Stevie Glaberson, director of research and advocacy for the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, in a statement.
“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 alleged. “Americans deserve visibility on the details of this program, and the department’s lack of transparency is unacceptable.”
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DHS contributions to the FBI’s DNA database have increased by “an astonishing” 5,000% since the program’s inception, the organizations say. They filed joint FOIA requests in the summer of 2024 to “uncover critical information about how the data is managed and utilized — information that remains undisclosed to the public,” according to the groups, which ICE and CBP officials have allegedly ignored.
CBP, the complaint alleges, “stated that the Request ‘was reviewed as a third-party request and did not include authorization that information on this individual, or business, can be released to you,’ and closed the FOIA request ‘as insufficient.””
Filed in the District of Columbia, the groups’ lawsuit accuses the government of violating “their obligation under the FOIA by failing to make a reasonable effort to search for records responsive to plaintiffs’ request,” according to the complaint.
“Defendants are wrongly withholding agency records by failing to produce nonexempt records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA Request and by failing to segregate and produce nonexempt records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA Request,” the complaint charges.
Emerald Tse, an associate at the Georgetown Law Center, tells Law&Crime that an individual’s DNA can reveal “incredibly sensitive information about not just that person but entire communities of people,” which is one of the biggest reasons for holding Trump admin officials accountable.
“DHS’s program empowers federal agents to collect the DNA of any person they decide to stop, regardless of their citizenship status,” Tse says. “We are demanding that DHS disclose agency policies on who they collect DNA from, how to collect samples, and where the samples are being stored. The public has the right to know how taxpayer dollars are being used in government operations, especially those that concern the privacy of our genetic material, and this lawsuit is about vindicating that right.”
DHS could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
