President Donald Trump arrives to sign the Laken Riley Act in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Immigration advocates have filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of failing to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding its “practices and procedures” pertaining to the DNA collection of immigrants living in the United States, including “people accused of no crime,” the advocates say.
Attorneys for the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology, Amica Center for Immigrants Rights and Americans for Immigrant Justice are suing the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been ignoring FOIA requests since last year regarding how DHS “collects, stores and uses DNA samples taken from non-citizens,” according to the groups.
“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.”
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.”
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.
