The Justice Department is completing rules to allow the collection of DNA from most people arrested or detained by federal authorities, officials said, a vast expansion of DNA gathering that will include hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants each year. The new forensic DNA sampling was authorized by Congress in a little-noticed amendment to a January 2006 renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which provides protections and assistance for victims of sexual crimes. The amendment permits DNA collecting from anyone under criminal arrest by federal authorities, and also from illegal immigrants detained by federal agents — by far the largest group to be affected by the new law.
What's troubling about this development is that it has happened without fanfare, almost without notice. What most troubling is that it's being undertaken by an administration which so few Americans now trust.
The goal, justice officials said, is to make the practice of DNA sampling as routine as fingerprinting for anyone detained by federal agents, including illegal immigrants. Until now, federal authorities have taken DNA samples only from convicted felons.
