Three Democratic lawmakers in the US have written a letter urging the Trump Administration to reconsider its plan to collect DNA from migrants who have been detained, the Hill reports.
The Trump Administration announced in October that it planned to collect DNA samples from individuals in federal immigration custody and add those samples to a federal crime database. A pilot program collecting such samples began earlier this month near Detroit and southwestern Texas. The Trump Administration has said that the program will help confirm familial relationships and investigate crimes, according to the Hill.
In a letter to the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) write that they "believe the forced collection of DNA samples from families and individuals detained at our borders is a serious human rights issue." They go on to ask the acting secretary, Chad Wolf, to provide information on the different phases of the three-year pilot study, the number of individuals including minors from whom samples have been collected, and how these samples will be used, among other questions. The lawmakers additionally call for the program to end.