Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) initiated a high-stakes inquiry into the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this week, challenging the legality of a sprawling genetic surveillance program that has harvested DNA from over 133,000 migrant children. In formal letters addressed to federal leadership, Wyden characterized the program as a “chilling expansion” of government oversight, accusing Trump administration officials of deliberately obscuring the operational facts of the system.
FBI Database Houses Genetic Profiles of Thousands of Minors
Recent data, originally uncovered by WIRED and substantiated through a Freedom of Information Act request by Georgetown Law, reveals that the DHS collected genetic material from approximately 133,000 minors. Wyden argues that the executive branch has failed to provide any “justification for the permanent collection” of these biological samples. These profiles now reside in CODIS, an FBI database specifically engineered to track and identify suspects linked to violent crimes.
Critics of the policy emphasize that CODIS was never intended to store the genetic identities of civil immigration detainees. Despite this, the system retains this sensitive information indefinitely by default. Government records indicate that within the last four years, the DHS processed tens of thousands of minors, including at least 227 children aged 13 or younger. Statistics show that over 70 percent of those profiled originate from four specific nations: Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti.
Treating Children as Permanent Criminal Suspects
The implications of this data storage are long-term and systemic. “By including these children’s DNA in CODIS, their profiles will be queried every time a search is done of the database,” Wyden stated in his inquiry. He warned that this policy effectively forces law enforcement to treat these children as suspects in every future criminal investigation, regardless of their conduct.
This shift represents a broader trend in which the U.S. government utilizes noncitizens as the primary subjects for a massive genetic surveillance regime. While the system was built for criminal tracking, it is now being populated almost entirely by individuals in civil custody. Analysis from the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology shows that more than 250,000 DNA samples were added to CODIS in the last four months alone, accelerating its transition into a repository for migrant data.
Demands for Transparency and Legal Accountability
Wyden has formally requested that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem disclose the specific legal authorities used to gather and store these samples. His inquiry demands detailed data on collection numbers and a comprehensive list of policies governing the coercion, sharing, and expungement of genetic data.
“When Congress authorized the laws surrounding DNA collection by the federal government over two decades ago, lawmakers sought to address violent crime,” Wyden noted. “It was not intended as a means for the federal government to collect and permanently retain the DNA of all noncitizens.”
While DOJ spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre acknowledged receipt of the inquiry, the agency declined to provide further comment. The DHS has remained silent regarding its practices of harvesting genetic material from children.
The Normalization of Biometric Surveillance
The Center on Privacy and Technology argues that this aggressive collection is a cornerstone of a larger effort to redefine modern policing through biometric and behavioral data. Their 2024 report suggests that genetic surveillance provides almost no utility in standard immigration enforcement, labeling the practice a “stalking horse” for normalizing genetic profiling in everyday law enforcement.
Constitutional expert David Cole previously warned of this “mission creep,” noting that invasive measures initially tested on noncitizens often expand to the general population. Surveillance scholars observe that vulnerable groups frequently serve as the testing ground for technologies that eventually become societal norms.
“The surveillance the federal government experiments with on immigrants today will inevitably be deployed against citizens tomorrow,” cautioned Anthony Enriquez, vice president of advocacy at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. Enriquez noted that this mass collection has already begun to impact U.S. citizens, shortening the path from state surveillance to systemic criminalization.
