Newswire:

DNA, DNA Everywhere, And The Feds Want Even More

The U.S. government wants DNA ... lots of it.

The Washington Post reports that the Feds “will soon begin collecting DNA samples from all citizens arrested in connection with any federal crime and from many immigrants detained by federal authorities…”

What’s new about this? Before, the federal government only collected DNA from U.S. citizens convicted of federal crimes, now there will be “for the first time, the collection of DNA samples from people other than U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who are detained by U.S. authorities.”

Thirteen states already do this for state arrests, and turn their data over to the Feds. This new policy would extend to all federal arrests.

There are some positive aspects to this: Like fingerprints, advocates say the growing database will” provide an additional form of biometric identification from persons who would normally be fingerprinted” and help law enforcement positively identify “serial rapists, murderers and other offenders.”

But the database criminalizes folks who may just not have their papers sorted out: Most “illegal immigrants are detained for administrative violations, not federal crimes” and Paromita Shah, associate director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild says “it casts them all as criminals.”

And opportunities for mission creep are clear: Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, warns “the natural path is to move from the dangerous criminals down the chain, to anybody who has contact with law enforcement, and after that you’ll have DNA taken when people are born or first enter the country legally.”

Do these genes make my government look too big?

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