[CitizensTruth] ARTICLE-US to expand DNA collection

[Walterb306 at cs.com]

All,

FYI,

Beverley

RAMSTACK: U.S. set to expand DNA collections
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/22/us-set-to-expand-dna-collectio
ns/
Tom Ramstack (Contact)
Monday, December 22, 2008 
 
Tom Ramstack
The government is expanding collection of DNA samples beginning Jan. 9 to 
include anyone arrested on federal charges and many immigrants detained by the 
Homeland Security Department. 
Previously, DNA was collected only from people convicted of crimes. 
Civil rights advocates are up in arms. They say DNA sampling before 
conviction is another example of big government trampling the privacy of individuals. 
The new policy would add more than 1.2 million DNA samples to an FBI database 
that already has digitally logged the genetic material of 6.2 million 
convicts. 
The samples can be taken from blood or saliva swabs. 
The federal policy follows the lead of 13 states that have expanded their DNA 
collection to arrestees, largely from crime concerns raised by illegal 
immigration and terrorism. All 50 states allow DNA sampling on convicts. 
Most of the new samples would be taken from illegal immigrants detained by 
the Homeland Security Department. Its records show that Border Patrol and other 
agencies detained about 1.2 million immigrants in 2006. About 140,000 
Americans are arrested for felonies each year that could subject them to DNA sampling 
after Jan 9. 
Immigrants awaiting lawful entry into the United States or detained at sea by 
the Coast Guard would not be subjected to the DNA sampling. 
Law enforcement agencies use DNA by comparing samples to crime-scene evidence 
to find a match that leads them to suspects. 
The Justice Department instituted the policy with the approval of Congress in 
a December 2005 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. 
"We know from past experience that collecting DNA at arrest or deportation 
will prevent rapes and murders that would otherwise be committed," Sen. Jon Kyl, 
Arizona Republican, who sponsored the legislation, said when the Justice 
Department published its final regulations for the expanded samplings earlier this 
year. 
He mentioned as an example Arizona's "Chandler rapist," an illegal immigrant 
arrested in January after a suspected half-dozen sexual assaults on teenage 
girls and young mothers. He had been deported in 2003, but police took no DNA 
sample from him, which Mr. Kyl said could have led to an arrest early in the 
crime spree. 
The American Civil Liberties Union says the new policy punishes people who 
might never be convicted of crimes. Many arrestees later are found not guilty or 
have their cases dismissed. Immigrants are not necessarily criminals. 
The FBI could retain the genetic material permanently in the National DNA 
Index System. The ACLU says the government could analyze it for ancestry and 
medical diagnoses, both of which are supposed to be protected under the Fourth 
Amendment as privacy issues. 
"Already, the government has allowed its DNA database to be used in ways that 
go far beyond what was originally envisioned," said Michael T. Risher, ACLU 
staff lawyer. 
Law enforcement agencies sometimes use their database matches to track down 
family members whose DNA is similar to crime-scene genetic material in the hope 
they will then name the suspect, the ACLU says. 
The Justice Department denies privacy rights would be trampled by wider 
collection of DNA. 
"DNA samples and profiles in the system are subject to stringent privacy 
protections, reinforced and secured through numerous safeguards to ensure that 
information in the system is used only for proper law enforcement identification 
purposes," said Evan Peterson, Justice Department spokesman. 
o Above the Law runs on Mondays. Call Tom Ramstack at 202/636-3180 or e-mail 
tramstack at washingtontimes.com

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