DOJ approves plan to collect DNA from arrested illegal immigrants

[Geee]

Washington Examiner

The Trump administration finalized a new policy Friday that paves the way for Homeland Security to collect DNA from all illegal immigrants the department arrests, fulfilling the terms of a 2005 law that the government has been evading for years.

Under the new rules, posted online Friday and slated to be published in the Federal Register next week, Attorney General William P. Barr can cancel an Obama-era waiver and order collection of DNA by agents and officers in both U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

It was supposed to be already happening, but in 2010 then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano worked out a waiver. It was supposed to be temporary, to give Ms. Napolitano’s agencies time to figure out the collection, but it was renewed each year without any debate.