ICE Collecting DNA Samples
ICE's DNA collection program projects detainee samples to reach 33% of CODIS offender index by 2030, raising privacy concerns.
A Schneier on Security blog post discusses ICE collecting DNA samples from detainees, citing Georgetown Law research. DHS detainee samples are projected to constitute 33% of the FBI's CODIS offender index in 2030, up from 0.2% in 2019. The post raises concerns that samples collected under civil authority are being searched against crime scenes indefinitely, potentially without legal cause under Fourth Amendment standards.
- DHS detainee DNA samples projected to be 33% of CODIS offender index by 2030
- Samples collected under civil rather than criminal authority remain searchable against crime scenes
- Georgetown Law research questions whether collection meets Fourth Amendment cause requirements
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Comments
Kempton • August 19, 2026 7:31 AM
So what is a million DNA samples among “Constitutional Democracies”, hello Canada, Germany, France, UK, …? And is USA trying to “out Police State” China or something? #fascinating
it’s a forever denial database, you crossed illegally once and we have irrefutable proof.
i’m not sure i can game anything else out of it unless they want to extrapolate your relatives and deny them also for potentially shared ideologies?
any other ideas?
they did retinal scans too didn’t they? free training data i guess, maybe they can geolocate immigrant populations from dna sorting?
Rontea • August 19, 2026 9:14 AM
When a state stoops to collect the saliva of children, it does not build a fortress of justice, but a tower of Babel where freedom is drowned in its own echo. The face of law becomes a mask, and the mask opens not to a smile, but to a cold laboratory. One day the descendants of the enslaved genome will awaken and ask: “Was the nation of liberty a shepherd—or a collector of bones?”
The FBI’s CODIS database has an ‘Offender’ DNA index, of which DHS ‘Detainee’ samples are a sub-index.
DHS samples are projected to make up 33% of the ‘Offender’ index in 2030 — up from 0.2% in 2019.
While most DHS samples were collected under civil rather than criminal authority, they will remain searchable against crime scene samples indefinitely.
According to Georgetown Law, while the Fourth Amendment allows for warrantless searches to identify people, it does not allow warrantless searches without cause to solve crimes.
As such, it’s a little perplexing that in 2025 an ICE legal adviser described DHS’s DNA collection as having the “primary purpose” of building “a national DNA database for solving crimes”
The oversight is, I guess you could say, under development.
https://www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-technology-center/research/raiding-the-genome/
Not A Police State • August 19, 2026 12:35 PM
@Morley • August 19, 2026 11:24 AM,
“Not a police state… Not a police state…”
this reply is not intended to offend you nor to mock you but simply to remind you that, just to make sure
“it sticks” you hefta repeat it more than just twice, like you did, so here it goes:
Not a police state… Not a police state…Not a police state… Not a police state…Not a police state… Not a police state…Not a police state… Not a police state…Not a police state… Not a police state…Not a police state… Not a police state…
geez • August 19, 2026 1:43 PM
@KC @all
One could argue it was not a command (Open your mouth!) but a question (Open your mouth?).
Amd thar by agreeing to open one’s mouth one also agreed to a search.
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