https://www.npr.org/2026/03/18/nx-s1-5739257/ice-officers-dna-protesters-database

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Is ICE building a DNA database of political protesters? People
arrested while protesting ICE say federal agents took samples of
their DNA. It's legal, but experts say the practice raises questions
about what the government is doing with that genetic data.

News

ICE officers are taking DNA samples from protesters they've arrested

March 19, 20264:44 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
Headshot of Meg Anderson

Meg Anderson

ICE officers are taking DNA samples from protesters they've arrested

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  * Transcript

Federal immigration officers detain a person observing them on Jan.
13, 2026, in Minneapolis. After being arrested, some protesters have
said federal officers took samples of their DNA.

Federal immigration officers detain a person observing them on Jan.
13, 2026, in Minneapolis. After being arrested, some protesters have
said federal officers took samples of their DNA. Stephen Maturen/
Getty Images hide caption

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Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

In late January, Ben and his wife Gabby were driving to their home in
Northeast Minneapolis when they received a message on an activist
group chat that federal immigration officers were nearby. They had
been observing ICE activity in the city for weeks and headed over.

A crowd had already gathered when they arrived. Ben, who requested
NPR only use their first names because he fears retaliation from the
federal government, stood on the side of the road filming the
officers, who were back inside their car and looked like they were
about to leave.

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"But they stopped and got out of the car," he says. "And that's when
I got tackled."

Video of the incident, reviewed by NPR, shows a masked federal
officer running at Ben and slamming him to the ground. Three
immigration officers pinned him down and dragged him to their
vehicle. Ben says he was held in custody for about three hours.
Before his release, officers photographed and fingerprinted him.
Then, before Ben realized fully what was happening, an officer ran a
swab, similar to a Q-tip, along the inside of his cheek.

"It was super casual," Ben says. "It was just like, 'okay, yeah so
we're going to take this now.'"

NPR found five other people in Illinois, Oregon and Minnesota who
described similar occurrences in recent months. In statements made
under oath as part of lawsuits against the Trump administration's
handling of immigration enforcement, they said they were arrested,
seemingly without provocation, while protesting ICE and then had
officers take or try to take what appeared to be a sample of their
DNA.

"Are six cases enough to be concerned as a pattern? I think yes,
because history tells us that what law enforcement is permitted to
do, they tend to do more of," says Erin Murphy, a law professor at
New York University.

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The federal government does have broad authority to take DNA from
people it has arrested or who are facing charges. In fact, in a
statement to NPR, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland
Security said federal law actually requires federal law enforcement
to collect DNA samples from individuals arrested or facing charges.

But legal experts say that authority may be overly broad.

"What law enforcement would say is, 'these were people that were
facing charges,'" Murphy says. "What are the charges they're facing
if it's civil immigration authorities doing what seems to be unlawful
interference with First Amendment rights? Even if that's the asserted
basis, is that constitutional? I think the answer should be clearly
no."

In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that a Maryland state law that
forced an arrested person to give their DNA to police was
constitutional. But that case involved clear restrictions: It
involved a law that required the arrest be for a serious crime, and
the arrest had to be lawful, based on probable cause.

Orin Kerr, a law professor at Stanford University, says whether the
arrest is lawful is the most pressing question at hand, when it comes
to the DNA taken from ICE protesters.

"What you worry about is an officer making a decision in the field
that a person committed a crime when they might not have. Maybe they
were doing something protected under the First Amendment," Kerr says.
"The officer says, 'I think you crossed the line, I'm going to arrest
you.' It turns out the officer was wrong, but the DNA test has been
conducted, and the information has been entered into the database.
What then?"

Kerr says it's not immediately clear what the legal remedy might be
for such a violation, though there are avenues to request the federal
government expunge a DNA record.

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NPR has found dozens of examples of people who said federal officers
told them they were committing a crime while peacefully observing
immigration activity, which civil rights lawyers say is
constitutionally protected behavior.

Andrew Birrell, president of the National Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers, says he worries that gathering protesters' DNA could
have a chilling effect on free speech.

"The Court was not imagining a First Amendment situation," Birrell
says. "It's very concerning to me because what it looks like the
government is doing is creating this catalog of political
dissidents."

It's unclear where the samples acquired from protesters in recent
months are ending up or how they're being used. DHS did not respond
to NPR's questions about that. Administration officials have
previously denied the existence of a database of protesters.

In the past, DNA specimens taken by federal immigration officers have
been added to a national database maintained by the FBI, which many
state and local law enforcement agencies can access. From 2020 to
2024, for instance, DHS took the DNA of more than 2,000 U.S.
citizens, according to a report from Georgetown University. Those
samples were added to that database.

Murphy, of NYU, says having the protesters' DNA samples in a
centralized policing database is particularly troubling because
genetic information is so sensitive. It's much more than a
fingerprint.

"You're not just giving up some abstract stuff. You're giving up
valuable information," she says.

DNA tests can reveal information about a person's ancestry, their
risk for developing certain health conditions, and their likelihood
of having certain personality traits. The fear, Murphy says, is that
all that data could be weaponized - and that extends beyond the risk
to a single person.

"You're taking their entire family tree going back in history,"
Murphy says. "And you're not just taking their DNA right in this
moment in time, you're taking their children's DNA and their
children's children's DNA."

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In Minneapolis, Ben, the man tackled by ICE, was still in a lot of
pain a few days after his arrest. He went to the hospital, where
doctors found three broken ribs. His medical records, which NPR
reviewed, say he suffered "blunt chest trauma." More than a month
later, he still feels some pain, but says what's been more lasting is
the psychological stress the whole ordeal caused.

"I don't really have the words for it," he says. "It's just not
something that should have ever happened."

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