#Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data

[alyfoxxxen]

Outrage after CBP detains gay VT superintendent for hours

[raygun631]

The "Big Beautiful Bill" will fund ICE as a private military force which is already grabbing Americans off the streets.

This bill currently in senate will fund a private military force and genocide:

At the heart of the bill is $29.85 billion in funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), designated to remain available through 2029. The funds cover large-scale personnel expansion, new deportation infrastructure, and digital enforcement technology.

According to the legislative text, ICE is appropriated “$29,850,000,000...to remain available until September 30, 2029” (p. 904).

But ICE is just one piece of the package. When combined with new appropriations for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), immigration courts, detention expansion, and state-level border assistance, the bill’s immigration enforcement budget totals approximately $175.155 billion. Summary of Immigration-Related Funding (FY2025)

According to the legislative text of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the following immigration-related funding appear across multiple sections of the bill:U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is appropriated $29.85 billion “to remain available until September 30, 2029,” for hiring 8,500 new enforcement officers and expanding deportation operations. The funding appears on page 826 of the PDF. An additional $45 billion is set aside for expanding ICE detention capacity, including “single adult and family residential center beds,” as outlined on page 827. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) receives $46.55 billion for physical border infrastructure, including “constructing tactical infrastructure and physical barriers,” found on page 824. CBP is granted another $12.007 billion to hire new Border Patrol agents, provide signing and relocation bonuses, purchase vehicles, and upgrade facilities. This funding is detailed on page 825. The bill dedicates $6.168 billion to modern surveillance, biometric, and screening technologies at the border, including “autonomous surveillance towers” and “artificial intelligence for threat detection.” This provision appears on page 828. A newly established State Border Security Reinforcement Fund is appropriated $10 billion to reimburse states for building their own wall systems, transporting migrants, and operating checkpoints. This is outlined on page 832. Separately, Section 70605 of the bill imposes a 1% federal excise tax on cash-based international remittance transfers, which applies to any funds sent outside the U.S. via money orders, cash, or cashier’s checks. This section spans pages 613 to 615. Originally, it was 30%, then 5%, then 3%, and now 1%.

Massive ICE Buildout and Bonuses

ICE alone would be authorized to hire “not fewer than 8,500 additional officers and agents” plus over 2,000 attorneys and support staff (p. 905). To support recruitment and retention:Signing bonuses of up to $20,000 are offered to new ICE hires who commit to five years of service (p. 906). Retention bonuses of up to $15,000 annually are available in “high-attrition field offices.” ICE agents may now qualify for law enforcement availability pay (LEAP) and 10% premium overtime.

Over $5.2 billion is allocated for infrastructure modernization, including $1.25 billion for new detention facilities and $2.5 billion for artificial intelligence, biometric data systems, and digital case tracking (pp. 907–908).

They are funding a secret police

We need designs, to plaster everywhere, informing people and the need for an emergency reponse to this thing. Monday the 30th at noon until this thing is stopped. Protest, call out sick, dont buy anything, stay home and doomscroll

Spread the word be creative

[mariacallous]

The messaging app used by at least one top Trump administration official has suspended its services following reports of hackers stealing data from the app. Smarsh, TeleMessage’s parent company, says it is now investigating the incident.

“TeleMessage is investigating a potential security incident. Upon detection, we acted quickly to contain it and engaged an external cybersecurity firm to support our investigation,” a Smarsh spokesperson told WIRED in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, all TeleMessage services have been temporarily suspended. All other Smarsh products and services remain fully operational.”

President Donald Trump's now-former national security adviser Mike Waltz was captured by a Reuters photographer last week using an unauthorized version of the secure communication app Signal—known as TeleMessage Signal or TM Signal—which allows users to archive their communications. Photos of Waltz using the app appear to show that he was communicating with other high-ranking officials, including Vice President JD Vance, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Experts told WIRED on Friday that, by definition, TM Signal's archiving feature undermined the end-to-end encryption that makes the actual Signal communication app secure and private. 404 Media and independent journalist Micah Lee reported on Sunday that the app had been breached by a hacker. NBC News reported on Monday that it had reviewed evidence of an additional breach.

TeleMessage was founded in Israel in 1999 and was acquired last year by the US-based digital communications archiving company Smarsh. TeleMessage makes apparently unauthorized versions of popular communications apps that include archiving features for institutional compliance. But the company claims that its look-alikes have the same digital defenses as their legitimate counterparts, potentially giving users a false sense of security.

Waltz's app usage came under intense scrutiny last month after he appeared to have added the editor in chief of The Atlantic to a Signal group chat in which Trump administration officials discussed plans for a military operation. Dubbed SignalGate, the scandal ultimately preceded Waltz's ouster as national security adviser. President Trump said last week that he plans to nominate him to be ambassador to the United Nations.

TeleMessage apps are not approved for use under the US government's Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, and yet they seem to be proliferating. Leaked data reportedly from TM Signal indicates that multiple US Customs and Border Protection agents may be using the Signal look-alike. When asked about the breach and whether CBP officers use TM Signal, the agency told WIRED, “We're looking into this.”

After a number of reports by Lee and 404 Media over the weekend, TeleMessage removed all content from its website on Saturday and took down its archiving service on Sunday.

“We are committed to transparency and will share updates as we are able,” the Smarsh statement adds. “We thank our customers and partners for their trust and patience during this time.”

Since the revelation last week that Waltz appeared to be using TM Signal, experts have feared that information shared on the app could jeopardize US national security.

[darkmaga-returns]

Between 2021 and 2024, the Biden administration allowed the U.S. southern border to spiral into an unprecedented crisis. But this wasn’t merely bureaucratic failure or negligence — it was a calculated political strategy to overwhelm the immigration system in order to bolster Democrats political power.

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shows more than 10.8 million encounters nationwide between fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2024. In response, the Biden administration didn’t move to secure the border or enforce the law. Instead, the administration did things like create — out of thin air — a new parole program to funnel in approximately 530,000 foreign nationals from nations like Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The CHNV parole program was temporarily halted following fraud. As reported by Fox News, “several recipients were also arrested for high-profile crimes, including multiple child rapes.” Trump moved to cancel the program.

On Monday, District Court Judge Indira Talwani — an Obama appointee — in Boston blocked the administration from “revoking the legal status of over half a million migrants who flew in the U.S. via President Biden’s CHNV mass parole program,” Fox News’ Bill Melugin said in a post on X.

The judge ruled, as described by Melugin, that “there needs to be a case by case evaluation on each of the individual 530,000+ migrants who flew into the US via this program, and that parole cannot just be blanket revoked across the board as a whole.”

It’s a monumental bureaucratic burden that could take decades or longer to process.

[theknightlywolfe]

"A data broker owned by the country’s major airlines, including Delta, American Airlines, and United, collected US travelers’ domestic flight records, sold access to them to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and then as part of the contract told CBP to not reveal where the data came from, according to internal CBP documents obtained by 404 Media. The data includes passenger names, their full flight itineraries, and financial details.

...

A DHS Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) available online says that TIP data is updated daily with the previous day’s ticket sales, and contains more than one billion records spanning 39 months of past and future travel. The document says TIP can be searched by name, credit card, or airline, but ARC contains data from ARC-accredited travel agencies, such as Expedia, and not flights booked directly with an airline. “If the passenger buys a ticket directly from the airline, then the search done by ICE will not show up in an ARC report,” that PIA says. The PIA notes that the data impacts both US and non-US persons, meaning it does include information on US citizens.

“While obtaining domestic airline data—like many other transaction and purchase records—generally doesn't require a warrant, there's still supposed to go through a legal process that ensures independent oversight and limits data collection to records that will support an investigation,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology's Security and Surveillance Project, told 404 Media in an email. “As with many other types of sensitive and revealing data, the government seems intent on using data brokers to buy their way around important guardrails and limits.”

...

“ARC has refused to answer oversight questions from Congress, so I have already contacted the major airlines that own ARC—like Delta, American Airlines, and United—to find out why they gave the green light to sell their customers' data to the government,” Wyden’s statement added."

[allthegeopolitics]

Smartphones, laptops and a host of other tech components will be spared from the Trump administration’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs”, including steep 125 percent duties on imports from China, according to a notice issued by US Customs and Border Protection. The US CBP on Friday listed 20 product categories, including the very broad 8471 code for all computers, laptops, disc drives and automatic data processing. It also included semiconductor devices, equipment, memory chips and flat panel displays.

Continue Reading.

[yourreddancer]

ICE Has Deported at Least 70 U.S. Citizens

GAO confirms ICE deported U.S. citizens due to systemic failures — and the agency still doesn’t know how many more it’s wrongly targeting

Nicolae Viorel Butler

Jun 23, 2025

WASHINGTON — A recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirms what immigrant advocates have long warned: ICE has deported American citizens.

Between 2015 and 2020, ICE deported at least 70 people who were U.S. citizens, according to the GAO. That’s not just a bureaucratic mistake — it’s a constitutional violation.

U.S. citizens cannot be deported under civil immigration law. Yet GAO found that ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lack the records to even know how many people they may have deported in error.

In total, the watchdog found that ICE arrested 674 potential U.S. citizens, detained 121, and deported 70 — all of whom may have been legally untouchable by immigration enforcement.

And the actual number could be much higher.

“ICE does not know the extent to which its officers are taking enforcement actions against individuals who could be U.S. citizens,” the GAO concluded.

Training Gaps, Broken Databases, and Zero Accountability

According to the report, ICE’s own systems — both human and digital — are fundamentally flawed.

First, ICE’s internal training is a mess. Officers are technically required to consult with supervisors before questioning someone who claims to be a citizen. But ICE’s training materials contradict that rule, telling officers they can act alone — a gap that leaves life-altering decisions in the hands of under-trained agents.

Second, ICE’s data infrastructure makes misidentification permanent. Officers are supposed to document citizenship investigations, but they aren’t required to update a person’s status in ICE databases, even after confirming U.S. citizenship.

The result: people who are U.S. citizens can stay marked as “removable” in ICE’s system indefinitely.

Thousands Wrongly Targeted, Some Detained for Years

A separate analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse found that between 2002 and 2017, ICE wrongly flagged at least 2,840 U.S. citizens as potentially deportable. At least 214 of those Americans were taken into ICE custody.

In the most harrowing case, Davino Watson, a New York-born citizen, was detained for three years in an Alabama immigration jail. He had no lawyer and was forced to prove his citizenship status to the government alone. When he finally got out, an appeals court ruled he wasn’t owed a dime — the statute of limitations had expired.

A Pattern of Profiling

Underlying these errors is a deeper problem: racial profiling.

Both ICE and CBP have long been documented engaging in discriminatory enforcement practices, disproportionately targeting people of color. As a result, Black and brown U.S. citizens are more likely to be stopped, arrested, or even deported — despite having every legal right to remain.

Without access to free legal counsel — a protection immigrants are not guaranteed — many citizens caught up in the system are left defenseless.

Mistakes ICE Refuses to Fix

What’s perhaps most disturbing is the lack of systemic response. ICE has not implemented a reliable system to track and correct its mistakes. Officers continue to make arrests based on outdated records. Supervisors are often left out of citizenship investigations. And there are no effective safeguards to stop this from happening again.

The result? A system that treats constitutional rights as optional — and a deportation machine that can’t (or won’t) tell the difference between an immigrant and an American.

[0rph3u5]

Officials made 3,254 egg-related seizures in January and February 2025, according to new data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). 

[proleposting]

“The Department of Justice has argued that extensive DNA collection activity at the border provides “an assessment of the danger” a migrant potentially “poses to the public” and will essentially help solve crimes that may be committed in the future. Experts say that the children’s raw genetic material will be stored indefinitely and worry that, without proper guardrails, the DNA dragnet could eventually be used for more extensive profiling.

[…]

Of the tens of thousands of minors whose DNA was collected by Customs and Border Protection over the past four years, as many as 227 were 13 or younger, including the 4-year-old. […] As many as 122 minors were categorized as American citizens, 53 of whom were not detained for any criminal arrest, CBP records say.

[…]

For Stevie Glaberson, the director of research and advocacy at the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, the implication is clear: The US government is treating every person who crosses the border, regardless of age, legal status, or whether they’re accused of any wrongdoing, as a possible suspect in crimes yet to occur.”

[beardedmrbean]

Former President Biden's climate czar John Kerry admitted during an interview on Thursday that President Donald Trump was "right" about the border.

"The first thing any president should say, any president, or anybody in public life, is, without a border protected, you don't have a nation — I believe that. If you're going to define your nation, you have to have a border that means something," Kerry said during an interview on BBC's "Reflections" podcast. "We have a system. I wish President Biden had been heard more often saying, 'I'm going to enforce the law.'"

Kerry served as former President Barack Obama's Secretary of State and ran for president against former President George W. Bush in the 2004 election. BBC correspondent James Naughtie said during the discussion that Trump would likely point at Kerry's remarks and declare he was right about the issue.

"He was right," Kerry responded. "The problem is we all should have been right. Everybody should have been right, doing the same thing, all moving in the same direction."

Kerry said earlier in the discussion that he told Biden that the Democratic Party had missed on the issue of immigration.

"They just allowed the border to continue to be sieged, under siege," Kerry said. 

The former Secretary of State also noted that Democrats supported an immigration bill that several Republicans and Trump opposed.

Naughtie also asked Kerry if it would have helped if Biden had announced earlier that he wasn't going to run for re-election rather than under pressure from members of his own party.

"I think in retrospect that's pretty clear, it answers itself," Kerry said.

As the BBC correspondent asked if the former president knew that, Kerry said he didn't want to speculate. 

"He's my friend, and he did a hell of a job. I don't think he's gotten enough credit for what a great president he was," he said of Biden. 

Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a focal point of his second term, launching mass deportations across the U.S.

Between June 1 and June 22, there were 5,414 apprehensions at the border, with the busiest sector being El Paso, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. During that same timeframe, there have been 986 known "gotaways." Both numbers are the lowest ever recorded.

In May, there were just under 9,000 apprehensions of illegal immigrants at the border, compared with roughly 118,000 the year prior under the Biden administration by CBP. __________________________

From the BBC, just for the people that use the phrase faux news

Trump is right on migration - John Kerry says Biden allowed 'siege' on border

[liesmyteachertoldme]

The continuing effects of Biden's Tr**son

In the latest of countless scandals involving the Biden administration’s failure to secure the border, over half a million illegal aliens with criminal histories are roaming freely in the United States, 435,719 with convictions and another 226,847 with pending charges. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created after 9/11 to protect the country from another terrorist attack, has released the foreign criminals in cities around the U.S., according to the Deputy Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS agency charged with “enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety.” In figures reluctantly provided to Congress ICE’s second in command, Patrick Lechleitner, reveals that as of July 21, 2024 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories are on the agency’s “non-detained docket” and therefore roaming freely throughout the country. The data is “beyond disturbing,” said the Texas congressman, Republican Tony Gonzales, who forced DHS to provide the records.

Nearly 15,000 of the freed illegal aliens have been convicted of or charged with murder, more than 20,000 with sexual assault, 60,268 with burglary, larceny, or robbery, 105,146 with assault, 16,820 with weapon offenses, 3,971 with commercialized sex crimes and 3,372 with kidnapping. Over 126,000 have committed traffic offenses, more than 70,000 are in the system for drug crimes, 21,106 for fraudulent activities and 12,000 for obstruction of justice. “Under President Biden and his ‘border czar,’ Vice President Harris, DHS law enforcement has been directed to mass-release illegal aliens whom they know have criminal convictions or are facing charges for serious crimes—and these dangerous, destructive individuals are making their way into every city and state in this country,” said Tennessee Congressman Mark E. Green, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security that recently exposed the alarming DHS stats. “How many more Americans need to die or be victimized before this administration is forced to abide by the laws they swore to uphold? This is madness. It is something no civilized, well-functioning society should tolerate.”

Just a few weeks ago, the House Homeland Security Committee released an eye-popping report documenting the Biden-Harris administration’s unprecedented border crisis, which has allowed droves of violent gang members, Islamic terrorists, tens of thousands of Chinese nationals and a myriad of criminals into the country. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is on pace to record more than 11.6 million illegal immigrant encounters by the end of the Biden administration, an astounding 274% increase from the 3.1 million encounters recorded between fiscal years 2017 to 2020, according to figures in the congressional report. That does not even include around 2 million known “gotaways” that have entered the nation under this administration.

[mariacallous]

The United States government has collected DNA samples from upwards of 133,000 migrant children and teenagers—including at least one 4-year-old—and uploaded their genetic data into a national criminal database used by local, state, and federal law enforcement, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.

The records, quietly released by the US Customs and Border Protection earlier this year, offer the most detailed look to date at the scale of CBP’s controversial DNA collection program. They reveal for the first time just how deeply the government’s biometric surveillance reaches into the lives of migrant children, some of whom may still be learning to read or tie their shoes—yet whose DNA is now stored in a system originally built for convicted sex offenders and violent criminals.

The Department of Justice has argued that extensive DNA collection activity at the border provides “an assessment of the danger” a migrant potentially “poses to the public” and will essentially help solve crimes that may be committed in the future. Experts say that the children’s raw genetic material will be stored indefinitely and worry that, without proper guardrails, the DNA dragnet could eventually be used for more extensive profiling.

Spanning from October 2020 through the end of 2024, the records show that CBP swabbed the cheeks of between 829,000 and 2.8 million people, with experts estimating that the true figure, excluding duplicates, is likely well over 1.5 million. That number includes as many as 133,539 children and teenagers. These figures mark a sweeping expansion of biometric surveillance—one that explicitly targets migrant populations, including children.

The DNA samples are registered in the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, a database administered by the FBI, which processes the DNA and stores the resulting genetic profiles. A network of criminal forensic databases, CODIS is used by local, state, and federal enforcement agencies to match DNA collected from crime scenes or convictions to identify suspects.

On May 10, 2024, for instance, records say that CBP agents from the El Paso, Texas, field office collected a DNA sample from the mouth of an individual in its custody whom CBP identified as Cuban and who was detained for allegedly being an “immigrant w/o docs.” Swabbing the individuals’ cheek, the agents obtained a DNA sample containing the individual's entire genetic code and then sent the sample to the FBI for processing.

According to CBP records, the individual was just 4 years old.

Of the tens of thousands of minors whose DNA was collected by Customs and Border Protection over the past four years, as many as 227 were 13 or younger, including the 4-year-old. Department of Homeland Security policy states that individuals under 14 are generally exempt from DNA collection, but field officers have the discretion to collect DNA in some circumstances. The data shows additional entries for kids aged 10, 11, 12, and 13. The numbers spike beginning at age 14; more than 30,000 entries were logged for each age group from 14 to 17.

Under current rules, DNA is generally collected from anyone who is also fingerprinted. According to DHS policy, 14 is the minimum age at which fingerprinting becomes routine.

As many as 122 minors were categorized as American citizens, 53 of whom were not detained for any criminal arrest, CBP records say. (People asking to enter the United States to apply for asylum are put in civil rather than criminal custody.)

Neither DHS nor CBP provided comment ahead of publication.

Multiple legal, privacy, and immigration experts described the findings as deeply troubling. “It’s horribly dystopian,” says Vera Eidelman, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “It’s impossible for me to think of a reason to collect a 4-year-old’s DNA and upload it to a database that’s explicitly supposed to be about criminal activity.”

As one of the world’s largest law enforcement agencies, CBP is responsible for intercepting and processing individuals who cross the US border without authorization. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement handles long-term detention and deportation, CBP controls the earliest, most vulnerable hours of a migrant’s legal journey in the US, often when they are first taken into custody, questioned, and in many cases fingerprinted and swabbed for DNA.

Both CBP and ICE operate under the Department of Homeland Security and, under current policy, are authorized to collect fingerprints and DNA from anyone in their custody as young as 14 years old. Exceptions for younger children can be made in certain cases involving “potentially criminal situations”; however, the CBP data analyzed by WIRED indicates this was the case in as few as 2.2 percent of the hundreds of kids subjected to DNA swabs.

Of the 227 people listed in the data as children under 14 and having their DNA submitted to the FBI, most of them are simply labeled “detainee.” Only five were listed as arrestees or linked to criminal charges.Got a Tip?Are you a current or former government employee who wants to talk about what's happening? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter securely on Signal at dmehro.89.

CBP’s participation in the CODIS program isn’t new, though it expanded significantly after a 2020 Department of Justice rule amending a previous exemption that effectively allowed DHS to avoid collecting DNA from civil immigration detainees.

Sara Huston, an expert in genomics policy and the principal investigator at the Genetics and Justice Laboratory and a research assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, tells WIRED that CODIS is a powerful tool for law enforcement when solving violent crimes, sexual assaults, and missing persons cases.

Huston explains that typically when DNA is collected from a crime scene—such as in a sexual assault case—it’s processed and uploaded to CODIS and compared with DNA from anyone in the database, which includes people who have been previously arrested for certain crimes or convicted. A match can help investigators connect unsolved cases, identify suspects, and share critical leads across jurisdictions.

But the inclusion of migrants, the vast majority of whom were not listed in CBP data as having been accused of any felonies, raises deeper questions about what kind of data belongs in a criminal database. CODIS was designed to track criminal offenders, not to permanently catalog the genetic information of undocumented children passing through immigration custody.

“It’s not that we can’t solve crimes by collecting these samples—that’s why CODIS exists, and it’s a wonderful tool,” Huston says. “But it’s not a fair system to keep DNA of people who have not committed crimes on the assumption that they likely will.”

Apprehensions of migrants who crossed the border unlawfully between ports of entry have since fallen to historic lows during the current Trump administration; it's unclear whether the pace of DNA collection has also slowed, as the most recent data ends on December 31, 2024.

The data, which CBP published to its website in February, shows that DNA collection accelerated under the Biden administration, with daily submissions to CODIS increasing sharply in 2024 alongside a reported rise in border apprehensions. On a single day in January 2024, for example, the Laredo, Texas, field office submitted as many as 3,930 DNA samples to the FBI—252 were listed as 17 or younger, CBP records show.

The DOJ has defended the mass collection of DNA at the border as necessary for solving crimes. In its official rationale, the agency argues that this sweeping effort is “essential” not only for identifying migrants who may have committed crimes in the past but also for potentially solving crimes they might commit in the future.

For Stevie Glaberson, the director of research and advocacy at the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, the implication is clear: The US government is treating every person who crosses the border, regardless of age, legal status, or whether they’re accused of any wrongdoing, as a possible suspect in crimes yet to occur.

If the government’s goal is to determine whether a detainee is connected to past crimes, Glaberson tells WIRED, there would be no need to add that person’s DNA to CODIS—they could simply check for a match against existing profiles. “It’s hard to imagine a situation where a 4-year-old was involved in criminal activity,” Glaberson says.

“Taking DNA from a 4-year old and adding it into CODIS flies in the face of any immigration purpose,” she says, adding, “That’s not immigration enforcement. That’s genetic surveillance.”

Multiple studies show no link between immigration and increased crime.

In 2024, Glaberson coauthored a report called “Raiding the Genome” that was the first to try to quantify DHS’s 2020 expansion of DNA collection. It found that if DHS continues to collect DNA at the rate the agency itself projects, one-third of the DNA profiles in CODIS by 2034 will have been taken by DHS, and seemingly without any real due process—the protections that are supposed to be in place before law enforcement compels a person to hand over their most sensitive information.

CBP collects DNA using buccal swab kits—long cotton-tipped sticks used to scrape the inside of a detainee’s cheek. While the DNA sample itself contains a person’s entire genetic code, Huston says that what’s uploaded to CODIS is better understood as a lower-resolution snapshot—a DNA profile made up of select genetic markers used solely to identify individuals—and is not intended to reveal traits, health conditions, or genetic predispositions. However, both she and Glaberson note that the raw DNA sample itself could be stored indefinitely.

The DOJ did not respond to multiple requests for comment, nor did it answer questions about how long raw DNA samples are stored. However, a current DOJ official, speaking to WIRED on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retribution, defended the collection and retention of migrant DNA. Storing raw samples, they say, is necessary for due process—to confirm that a match in CODIS can be traced back to the original raw material. “If you aren’t committing a crime, being in this database isn’t going to affect you,” they say, arguing that a larger pool of DNA increases the chances of finding a match.

Under federal law, CODIS data and the raw genetic samples can only be used for identification in criminal cases. DHS policy states that DNA samples may not be used to discriminate “in the provision of health benefits or other services” and that DNA samples are not used by the FBI to “reveal any physical traits, race, ethnicity, disease susceptibility, or other sensitive information about an individual.”

But privacy advocates worry that those rules aren’t enough, since policies can change and new uses can emerge alongside new technology. For instance, privacy and civil liberties experts have warned that the government could one day use DNA to link immigrants to family members, who could also be targeted by law enforcement. Another concern is that genetic data might be reanalyzed to predict health-related markers or inherited conditions—potentially influencing decisions about admissibility or whether someone is likely to require government support.

As Glaberson warns, “The warehousing of genetic samples containing the entirety of people's genetic code presents a risk in the future.”

[darkmaga-returns]

Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data reveals that more than 500,000 unaccompanied migrant children have been encountered at the southern border. To put that staggering number in perspective, it’s enough to fill New York City’s Madison Square Garden not once, not twice, but 25 times—a striking comparison first noted by journalist Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) on X.

But here’s the haunting question: Where are all these kids now?

A System Overwhelmed

The flood of unaccompanied minors has overwhelmed the government’s immigration infrastructure. Upon apprehension, these children are supposed to be handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The ORR is responsible for housing and eventually releasing these minors to vetted sponsors—often family members or guardians already in the U.S. But cracks in the system have raised serious concerns about the safety and well-being of these children.

Here’s what we know:

Lost in the System: Earlier this year, HHS admitted it had lost contact with more than 85,000 children after releasing them to sponsors. Some have reportedly fallen into labor exploitation, trafficking rings, or abusive situations.

Backlogs and Chaos: Detention facilities, often meant as temporary shelters, have become dangerously overcrowded. Reports of poor living conditions, abuse, and neglect within these facilities have sparked public outcry.

Rapid Releases: In efforts to clear overcrowded facilities, children are sometimes released to sponsors without thorough background checks, leaving them vulnerable.

[dertaglichedan]

Illegal border crossings surpass 12.5 million since Biden-Harris took office, most in US history

U.S. Customs and Border Protection released monthly border apprehension data on Friday, saying, “statistics show lowest southwest border encounters in nearly four years.” CBP also claimed illegal border crossings were down by 34% from June to July and the drop is due to a presidential proclamation issued in June.

Troy Miller, a senior official performing the duties of the CBP Commissioner, said recent Biden-Harris policies led “to the lowest number of encounters along the southwest border in more than three years.”

Despite these claims, the total number of apprehended illegal border crossers surpassed 10.5 million in July with two months left in the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

That number excludes 2 million gotaways, those who illegally entered and evaded capture, bringing the total number to more than 12.5 million.

That is greater than the individual populations of 45 states. If illegal border crossers were a state, they’d be the sixth most populous state ahead of Illinois.

That’s up from illegal border crossers totaling more than the individual populations of 43 states in March, up from 23 states in June 2022, when The Center Square first began making the comparison to state, county and country populations.

No other presidential administration in U.S. history has ever reported even a fraction of 12.5 million in one term let alone multiple terms combined.