According to documents examined by WIRED, the US government has taken DNA samples from up to 133,000 migrant children and teenagers, including at least one 4-year-old, and uploaded their genetic information into a national criminal database that is utilized by federal, state, and local law enforcement.
The documents, which were covertly made public by US Customs and Border Protection earlier this year, provide the most thorough examination of the scope of CBP’s contentious DNA collection program to date. They demonstrate for the first time the extent to which the government’s biometric surveillance affects the lives of migrant children, some of whom may still be learning to tie their shoes or read, but whose DNA is now kept in a system designed for dangerous criminals and convicted sex offenders.
Since this piece is based on reporting from Freedom of Information Act requests or publicly available government records, WIRED has made it available for everyone to read. To help support our journalism, please think about subscribing.
Extensive DNA collection at the border, according to the Department of Justice, offers “an assessment of the danger” a migrant potentially “poses to the public” and will essentially aid in the investigation of any future crimes. The children’s raw genetic material will be kept indefinitely, according to experts, who are concerned that the DNA dragnet may someday be used for more thorough profiling if appropriate safeguards are not in place.
How Protesters Are Spied by Governments and How to Prevent It
According to the statistics, which cover the period from October 2020 to the end of 2024, CBP swabbed the cheeks of between 829,000 and 2.8 million people. Experts estimate that the actual number, removing duplicates, is probably far higher than 1.5 million. Up to 133,539 children and teenagers are included in that figure. These numbers represent a broad extension of biometric surveillance, specifically targeting children and other migrant populations.
The FBI processes the DNA and saves the resulting genetic profiles in a database called the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, where the DNA samples are registered. Local, state, and federal law enforcement organizations use CODIS, a network of criminal forensic databases, to compare DNA taken from crime scenes or convictions in order to identify suspects.
For example, records indicate that on May 10, 2024, CBP agents from the El Paso, Texas, field office took a DNA sample from the lips of a person in their possession who was held for allegedly being a “immigrant w/o docs” and whom CBP classified as Cuban. The agents took a DNA sample from the person’s cheek, which contained all of their genetic information. They then forwarded the sample to the FBI for analysis.
CBP records indicate that the person was only 4 years old.
Up to 227 of the tens of thousands of children whose DNA Customs and Border Protection had gathered during the previous four years were 13 years of age or younger, including the 4-year-old. Individuals under the age of 14 are normally exempt from DNA collection, according to Department of Homeland Security regulation, although field officers may choose to collect DNA in specific situations. Additional entries for children ages 10, 11, 12, and 13 are displayed in the data. More than 30,000 registrations were recorded for each age group between 14 and 17, with the numbers peaking at age 14.
DNA is often taken from everybody who has their fingerprints taken under the existing regulations. The minimal age at which fingerprinting becomes commonplace is 14, per DHS policy.
According to CBP data, up to 122 adolescents were classified as citizens of the United States, 53 of whom were not arrested for any criminal offense. (Instead of being placed in criminal detention, those who request entry to the United States to claim for asylum are placed in civil custody.)
Several immigration, privacy, and legal experts characterized the results as extremely concerning. Vera Eidelman, a senior staff attorney with the Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, describes it as “horribly dystopian.” “I can’t think of a reason why a 4-year-old’s DNA should be collected and uploaded to a database that is specifically meant to be about criminal activity.”
CBP, one of the biggest law enforcement organizations in the world, is in charge of apprehending and detaining those who enter the US illegally. CBP is in charge of the early, most vulnerable hours of a migrant’s legal journey in the United States, including when they are first arrested, questioned, and frequently fingerprinted and swabbed for DNA. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is in charge of long-term detention and deportation.
READ MORE: This Low-Income Migrant Was Fined $1.8 Million By The Trump Administration
Under current protocol, CBP and ICE, which are both part of the Department of Homeland Security, are permitted to take fingerprints and DNA samples from anyone under their custody, including those as young as 14. Younger children may be exempt in specific circumstances involving “potentially criminal situations,” but according to the CBP data examined by WIRED, this was just the case in 2.2% of the hundreds of youngsters who had their DNA swabbed.
The majority of the 227 individuals in the data who are identified as children under 14 and whose DNA is being provided to the FBI are only referred to as “detainees.” Just five were connected to criminal charges or reported as arrestees.
Although CBP’s involvement in the CODIS program is not new, it did grow considerably following a 2020 Department of Justice ruling that modified an earlier exemption that essentially permitted DHS to forego gathering DNA from civil immigration detainees.
“CODIS is a powerful tool for law enforcement when solving violent crimes, sexual assaults, and missing persons cases,” says Sara Huston, a genomics policy expert, principal investigator at the Genetics and Justice Laboratory, and research assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, in an interview with WIRED.
According to Huston, when DNA is taken from a crime scene, like in a case of sexual assault, it is usually processed, uploaded to CODIS, and compared with DNA from anyone in the database, including those who have been convicted or arrested for specific crimes in the past. Investigators can identify individuals, link unresolved cases, and exchange vital information between jurisdictions with the aid of a match.
However, the inclusion of migrants—the great majority of whom were not identified as having been charged with any felony in CBP data—raises more serious concerns about the type of information that should be included in a criminal database. The purpose of CODIS was not to permanently catalog the genetic data of illegal children in immigration care, but rather to follow criminal criminals.
CODIS is a fantastic tool, and it’s not that we can’t solve murders by gathering these samples, according to Huston. “However, retaining the DNA of individuals who have not committed crimes under the presumption that they probably will is an unfair system.”
because then, during the current Trump administration, the number of migrants apprehended for illegal border crossings between ports of entry has dropped to historic lows; however, because the most recent data expires on December 31, 2024, it is unclear if the pace of DNA collection has likewise reduced.
READ MORE: Two Marines Killed In A Serious Car Accident While Serving On Trump’s Border Deployment
DNA collection accelerated under the Biden administration, according to data released by CBP to its website in February. Daily submissions to CODIS increased significantly in 2024, coinciding with a reported increase in border apprehensions. For instance, according to CBP data, the Laredo, Texas, field office sent up to 3,930 DNA samples to the FBI on one day in January 2024, of which 252 were identified as being 17 years of age or younger.
Mass DNA collection at the border has been justified by the DOJ as essential to crime solving. The government claims in its official justification that this extensive effort is “essential” for both identifying migrants who may have committed crimes in the past and maybe solving crimes they may commit in the future.
The implication is obvious to Stevie Glaberson, director of research and advocacy at Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology: The United States government is considering anyone who crosses the border, regardless of their age, immigration status, or whether they have been charged with any crimes, as a potential suspect in crimes that have not yet been committed.
Glaberson tells WIRED that there would be no need to upload a detainee’s DNA to CODIS if the government wants to ascertain whether they are linked to previous crimes; instead, they may look for a match against pre-existing profiles. According to Glaberson, “it’s difficult to imagine a situation where a 4-year-old was involved in criminal activity.”
She adds, “That’s not immigration enforcement. Adding DNA from a 4-year-old to CODIS flies in the face of any immigration purpose.” Genetic surveillance is what that is.
Immigration is not linked to an increase in crime, according to numerous research.
Glaberson coauthored the first paper to attempt quantifying DHS’s 2020 expansion of DNA collection, “Raiding the Genome,” published in 2024. According to the study, if DHS keeps collecting DNA at the rate it estimates, it will have collected one-third of the DNA profiles in CODIS by 2034, ostensibly without any genuine due process—the safeguards that should be in place before law enforcement forces someone to divulge their most private information.
Using buccal swab kits, which are long sticks with cotton tips used to scrape the inside of a detainee’s cheek, CBP gathers DNA. “What is uploaded to CODIS is better understood as a lower-resolution snapshot—a DNA profile made up of select genetic markers used solely to identify individuals—and is not intended to reveal traits, health conditions, or genetic predispositions,” Huston says, even though the DNA sample itself contains a person’s entire genetic code. She and Glaberson both point out that the actual raw DNA sample might be kept for an extended period of time.
Multiple requests for response and inquiries regarding the storage duration of raw DNA samples were not answered by the DOJ. However, a contemporary DOJ officer supported the gathering and keeping of migrant DNA, speaking to WIRED on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. They claim that in order to ensure due process—that a match in CODIS can be linked to the original raw material—raw samples must be stored. They contend that a larger pool of DNA increases the likelihood of finding a match, thus “being in this database isn’t going to affect you if you aren’t committing a crime.”
The raw genetic samples and CODIS data are only permitted to be utilized for identification in criminal situations under federal law. According to DHS rules, the FBI is not permitted to utilize DNA samples to “reveal any physical traits, race, ethnicity, disease susceptibility, or other sensitive information about an individual,” nor may they be used to discriminate “in the provision of health benefits or other services.”
However, privacy advocates fear that these regulations are insufficient since new technology can lead to new uses and policy changes. Experts in civil liberties and privacy, for example, have cautioned that the government may eventually use DNA to connect immigrants to relatives, who may then be singled out by law enforcement. The possibility that genetic data could be reanalyzed to anticipate inherited illnesses or health-related markers raises additional concerns because it could have an impact on choices on admissibility or whether a person is likely to need government assistance.
The storage of genetic samples that contain a person’s full genetic code poses a concern in the future, as Glaberson cautions.
Step into the ultimate entertainment experience with Radiant TV! Movies, TV series, exclusive interviews, live events, music, and more—stream anytime, anywhere. Download now on various devices including iPhone, Android, smart TVs, Apple TV, Fire Stick, and more!
