Why the US is collecting DNA from migrants
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
DNA may be the new front line of immigration control. The US government has collected the DNA of more than 130,000 migrant children and teenagers, some as young as four, and stored their profiles in CODIS, the FBI’s criminal database. Officials say it’s about public safety. But privacy advocates say it turns civil immigration cases into permanent criminal surveillance.
In this episode:
- Stevie Glaberson (@sglabe), Director of Research & Advocacy at Georgetown Law Center
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Noor Wazwaz, Sarí el-Khalili and Amy Walters, with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Marcos Bartolomé, Melanie Marich, Sonia Bhagat, Marya Khan, and our guest host, Manuel Rápalo. It was edited by Kylene Kiang.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, the U.S. is collecting DNA from migrant children, and it could follow them for life. |
| 0:18.4 | Do we think, really, that a four-year-old has their DNA associated with some unsolved crime |
| 0:25.9 | in our database? |
| 0:26.8 | I don't think so. |
| 0:28.6 | So, why is this DNA collection happening? |
| 0:31.3 | And where could this go next? |
| 0:35.7 | I'm Manuel Rapalo and this is The Take. |
| 0:42.3 | My name is Stevie Glaiberson. |
| 0:46.3 | I'm the director of research and advocacy at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law. |
| 0:53.3 | And we work to make it more possible for more people to resist |
| 0:56.3 | mass surveillance. Stevie, welcome to the take. I want to start by setting the scene for our audience |
| 1:01.8 | a little bit. In Brownsville, Texas, families and children are waiting under a tent to be processed by U.S. customs and border |
| 1:13.1 | protection. One by one, they're called forward when it's Fernando's turn. A young man from Mexico, |
| 1:19.9 | he is greeted by an agent who takes a swab from inside of his cheek. No questions, just a stick in his mouth. And when Fernando asks what |
| 1:30.7 | it's for, the agent tells him that it's a DNA sample, that he's collecting DNA. Fernando's confused. |
| 1:37.0 | He's wondering why the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is collecting his DNA. What is the |
| 1:43.5 | DHS going to do with that collected DNA? And Fernando is just |
| 1:49.3 | one of millions. Now, Stevie, you co-authored a report that uncovered his story and the broader |
| 1:56.1 | trends behind it. I'm wondering, what did those records reveal? Where is this DNA going? |
| 2:01.6 | Yeah, so Fernando is one of more than 2.6 million people who've had their DNA taken by |
| 2:10.6 | immigration agents as part of this program. |
... |
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