The federal government's sweeping power to force people under arrest to give a DNA sample is facing new scrutiny after multiple immigration enforcement protesters reported being swabbed after being taken into custody.
Steven Saari said he was "physically forced without my consent to do a DNA sample" after immigration agents detained him near where Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, was shot and killed by federal authorities in Minneapolis in January.
Saari, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said incourt recordsthat he went to the scene after hearing that another person had been shot by federal agents in the city, less than three weeks after the killing of Renee Nicole Good. He said he was taken into custody without cause.
"I was standing on the sidewalk, not recording with my phone not protesting, not yelling, not blowing a whistle, just watching," Saari said in a declaration filed in federal court. After about eight hours in custody, he was released without charges.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents patrol at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, March 23, 2026. Hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were ordered to deploy to airports to help fill TSA staffing gaps across the country." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
ICE agents appear at airports as TSA delays snarl check-in
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents patrol at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, March 23, 2026. Hundreds ofImmigration and Customs Enforcement agents were ordered to deploy to airportsto help fill TSA staffing gaps across the country.
Saari is not alone. Several people have said federal agents took or attempted to take DNA samples from them after they were suddenly apprehended.
"It's certainly alarming, but is it surprising? No," said Stevie Glaberson, director of research and advocacy at Georgetown University's Center on Privacy and Technology.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has broad authority to collect DNA from people in its custody and has ramped up its efforts to do so in recent years, Glaberson said.
Can ICE take your DNA?
A spokesperson for DHS told USA TODAYfederal lawrequires law enforcement to collect DNA samples from people who are arrested. The requirement cited by DHS applies to people who are "arrested, facing charges, or convicted," and non-U.S. citizens who are "detained."
The 2005 DNA Fingerprint Act authorized federal officials to collect DNA from people arrested on suspicion of having committed a crime, a significant expansion of power that "passed with little public scrutiny as an amendment to the reauthorization bill for the popular Violence Against Women Act," according toa report from the Center on Privacy and Technology published in May 2024 and co-authored by Glaberson.Federal lawmakes refusal to cooperate with DNA collection a crime, the researchers said, butsome people have done so,according to federal records.
McKenna Walker, a 27-year-old U.S. citizen who was detained in Minneapolis during a protest outside a federal building in January, said that agents "demanded a DNA sample," but she refused, according to a declaration filed as part of a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security.
"The agents also requested that I provide a buccal swab, but I insisted that I would not provide one without a warrant," she said in a court filing. "Eventually the agents acquiesced."
Agencies are authorized to use "such means as are reasonably necessary to detain, restrain, and collect a DNA sample" from someone who refuses to cooperate,according to the federal regulation cited by DHS.The sample, which can be collected through blood draws or buccal swabs, must then be sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation so that it can be analyzed and entered into a national law enforcement database known as the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS.
Once DNA is in CODIS, it can be accessed by certain law enforcement agencies across the country trying to solve other crimes.There is a process for requesting to have your DNA expunged from CODIS,according to the FBI, but Glaberson, co-author of the report, said very few people appear to have successfully done so, meaning their DNA will likely remain there in perpetuity.
A spokesperson for the FBI confirmed the bureau has a process to expunge a DNA profile from CODIS, but declined to comment any further.
DNA collection ramps up
Glaberson said that after a federal rule was changed in 2020, DHS ramped up its DNA collection, primarily in the context of immigration enforcement.
Over the first two decades of CODIS's existence, the government added approximately 25,000 DNA profiles from non-U.S. citizens to the database,according to the 2024 report. Between 2020 and 2024, Department of Homeland Security agents added more than 1.5 million "detainee" DNA profiles to the database. During those four years, Customs and Border Protection sentthe DNA of nearly 2,000 U.S. citizensto the FBI, the majority of whom were labeled as "arrestee/facing charges," the researchers found. USA TODAY has asked CBP for comment.
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"It's just un-American to surveil all these people for no reason," said Sara Huston, principal investigator of the Genetics and Justice Laboratory in Chicago, a policy lab designed to investigate "human rights and humanitarian applications of genetic information in non-medical contexts."
The amount of DNA added to CODIShas continued to riseduring the second Trump administration, according to the report, which Huston assisted with, sparking somequestions about the practice fromlawmakers.
Now, Glaberson said, "we are seeing a militarized police force in ICE being loosed on cities and grabbing people for very little reason, pretextual reasons, unconstitutional reasons and then using those unlawful detentions as cover to take people's DNA."
In Chicago, Dayanne Figueroa, said she was "swabbed for DNA" by federal agents who arrested her after she said agents sideswiped her car. The Department of Homeland Security accused Figueroa of attempting to ram agents with her vehicle, which Figueroa denies.
"I was violated," shetestified on Capitol Hill in December, describing how she was ripped from her car and arrested without being read her rights or asked for identification.
Is this legal?
Glaberson said that while federal agencies may have the legal authority to collect DNA, the way they exert that power could still be considered unconstitutional. She pointed to a2013 Supreme Court case, which found that it was constitutional for police to force people to give them their DNA under Maryland law when someone had been lawfully arrested based on probable cause they had committed a serious crime.
At the local level, courts help confirm there is probable cause either before an arrest when police secure a warrant or after when charges are pursued, Glaberson said. But she said often "ICE doesn't even make any half-hearted attempt to pursue criminal charges."
That's what happened after George Retes Jr., an Army veteran, was detained in California last summer. In a complaint filed in federal court, Retes said he was trying to report to his shift on a Camarillo farm when he discovered that federal agents were conducting a raid.
Retes, a U.S. citizen, said agents shouted conflicting commands before deploying tear gas, dragging him out of the car and throwing him to the ground. Federal agents brought him to a U.S. Navy base, where they took his "fingerprints, photographed him, exchanged the zip ties for handcuffs and leg shackles, and swabbed his cheek for a DNA sample," according to a court filing.
"He was strip searched, deprived of his belongings, and held incommunicado for three days and three nights," reada complaint filed in February. "He was never brought before a judge and was never charged with any offense."
Arrests, DNA swabs could have 'chilling effect'
In San Pedro, California, Julian Cardenas said he was "cheek-swabbed" after being detained by Homeland Security agents in July, according to aU.S. Senate subcommittee investigation.
Cardenas, a U.S. citizen and father of a 3-year-old son, told lawmakers he was recording ICE agents when his vehicle was surrounded, officers dragged him out of his car and held him in custody for three days. While inside the Santa Ana City Jail, authorities took a genetic sample.
"I never consented to my DNA being taken by the federal government," he told members of Congress. "They forced me to do it based on false charges. It is very intrusive."
Cardenas' charges were later dismissed.Dozens of casesinvolving people arrested by federal law enforcement officers during immigration enforcement operations or protests have reportedlyfallenapartacrossthe country. The Department of Justice declined comment.
Even if charges are never filed or are later dismissed, Glaberson said the fear of being arrested and swabbed for DNA could discourage people from observing ICE or peacefully protesting,activities that are protected by the First Amendment.
"The chilling effect of knowing...the federal government has your DNA, I think shouldn't be understated," she said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Can ICE take DNA from U.S. citizens? What we know.