The U.S. Justice Department is taking guilty before proven innocent to the next level for immigrants. Senior officials in President Donald Trump’s Administration announced Wednesday they will implement a new rule requiring immigrants in detention and those crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to give more comprehensive DNA samples, reported the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The samples will then be placed in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a national database used to help identify criminals, reported NBC.
The problematic rule is already being condemned by civil rights activists as a gross violation of privacy and endangerment to immigrants seeking asylum.
“Forced DNA collection raises serious privacy and civil liberties concerns and lacks justification, especially when DHS is already using less intrusive identification methods like fingerprinting,” said Vera Eidelman, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.
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According to the New York Times, however, Homeland Security officials said the rule is allowed because of the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005.
“Up until now, immigrant detainees have been exempt from the law, they said, because of an agreement between Eric H. Holder Jr. and Janet Napolitano, who served as attorney general and homeland security secretary, respectively, under President Barack Obama,” the Times reported.
The rule not only adds fuel to the Trump Administration’s effort to paint all immigrants entering America as criminals, it will also cause chaos when trying to implement a humane plan to swab hundreds of thousands of people.
Trump and his administration’s biased approach to immigration is no secret. Last year, Rep. Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts challenged Trump to consult more diverse sources than “white guys” when making immigration decisions.
