Immigration agents collected DNA samples from about 2,000 U.S. citizens who were stopped at border checkpoints over a four-year period, even though hundreds of them were not charged, researchers at Georgetown University said in a report on Tuesday.
The report by Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology is based on data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in February. The data came from forms that immigration agents fill out when they send genetic information to an F.B.I. database of convicted criminals, missing persons and evidence from crime scenes.
The report’s authors argued that border agents were exceeding their authority with the collections, accusing them of violating U.S. citizens’ rights under the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
The report analyzed data from October 2020 to December 2024, a period covering a few months of the first Trump administration and most of the Biden administration. The researchers found that of the 2,000 Americans subjected to cheek swabs agents from Customs and Border Protection, more than 800 were not arrested or charged with a crime at the time.
Law enforcement officers in the United States are allowed to collect DNA from citizens arrested in connection with serious crimes.
The Georgetown report said that federal agents sending genetic information to the F.B.I. had provided “legally questionable, nonsensical, or altogether absent” justifications for collecting DNA samples.
Neither U.S. Customs and Border Protection nor the F.B.I. responded to requests for comment overnight.
A February directive from U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that federal agencies are required to collect DNA samples from Americans who were under arrest, facing charges or convicted, and from noncitizens in U.S. detention. The directive said that DNA collection by agency was a “routine booking measure parallel to fingerprinting.”
The authors of the Georgetown report said that data on DNA collection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection during Mr. Trump’s second term was not yet available. They said they expected it to “reveal an even broader and more reckless approach” because of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
The second Trump administration has overseen a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration, threatening mass arrests and deportations.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
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