[privacy] U.S. Set to Begin a Vast Expansion of DNA Sampling

["'Richard M. Smith'" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/washington/05dna.html?ei=5094&en=a2a71de54
d113c56&hp=&ex=1170651600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
 
February 5, 2007

U.S. Set to Begin a Vast Expansion of DNA Sampling 

By JULIA PRESTON 

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. 

Over the last year, the Justice Department has been conducting an internal
review and consulting with other agencies to prepare regulations to carry
out the law.

The new law has strong support from crime victims' organizations and some
women's groups, who say it will help law enforcement identify sexual
predators and also detect dangerous criminals among illegal immigrants.

"Obviously, the bigger the DNA database, the better," said Lynn Parrish, the
spokeswoman for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, based in
Washington. "If this had been implemented years ago, it could have prevented
many crimes. Rapists are generalists. They don't just rape, they also
murder."

Immigration lawyers said they did not learn of the measure when it passed
last year and were dismayed by its sweeping scope.

"This has taken us by storm," said Deborah Notkin, a lawyer who was
president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association last year. "It's
so broad, it's scary. It is a terrible thing to do because people are
sometimes detained erroneously in the immigration system."

Immigration lawyers noted that most immigration violations, including those
when people enter the country illegally, are civil, not criminal, offenses.
They warned that the new law makes it difficult for immigrants to remove
their DNA profiles from the federal database, even if they are never found
to have committed any serious violation or crime. 

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. 

...


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