The U.S. Department of Justice is developing a federal regulation that will allow immigration officers to collect DNA from immigrants currently in detention centers, The New York Times reports. The Department of Homeland Security said the results would then be entered into a national criminal database. Immigrant and privacy advocates have raised concerns as the new rules would allow DNA to also be collected from children. “That kind of mass collection alters the purpose of DNA collection from one of criminal investigation basically to population surveillance, which is basically contrary to our basic notions of a free, trusting, autonomous society,” American Civil Liberties Union Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project Lawyer Vera Eidelman said. (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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