WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) today welcomed the publication of final regulations by the Justice Department that will expand the federal DNA database by having federal agencies collect samples from persons arrested under federal authority and from illegal immigrants in federal detention.
Kyl authored the portion of the 2005 law that gave the Justice Department the authority to develop regulations for collecting DNA samples from federal arrestees and immigration detainees and including them in the National DNA Index System, where samples can be compared with crime-scene evidence.
“We know from past experience that collecting DNA at arrest or deportation will prevent rapes and murders that would otherwise be committed.”
Kyl noted that if these regulations had been enacted earlier, Arizona police could have been able to stop Santana Aceves, the so-called “Chandler rapist,” earlier in his crime spree. Aceves was arrested in January of this year and linked by DNA to half a dozen sexual assaults of young girls that were committed in the Chandler area in 2006 and 2007. Aceves targeted young teen daughters of single mothers, stalking them and learning their families’ schedules and then attacking the girls in their homes when their mothers were at work. Aceves was present in the United States illegally and had been deported as recently as 2003. Had his DNA been collected and analyzed at that time, police would have identified him after the first rape that he committed in 2006, potentially preventing at least three or four subsequent sexual assaults.
Kyl also cited the state-law example of Anthony Dias to demonstrate the potential effectiveness of DNA arrestee sampling. Dias was arrested in Washington state for reckless driving and felony hit-and-run in July 2005. On August 31 2005, Dias broke into the home of a 19-year-old woman and raped her in her bedroom. Had Dias’s DNA been collected and analyzed upon his prior arrest, he would have been identified as the perpetrator of this assault. But his DNA was not collected, and Dias went on to rape eight other women in a series of home invasions and kidnappings before he was finally caught in November of that year.
Prior to today’s regulations, federal law enforcement agencies only collect samples from persons convicted of a federal offense, and do not collect samples from most illegal immigrants being removed from the United States.
Arrestees who are ultimately not convicted of a crime may “opt out” and have their DNA analysis removed from the database.
Kyl responded to critics who worry that the new regulations may adversely affect individual privacy because DNA analysis can extract medically sensitive information. Kyl noted that “Only a numerical profile that does not reveal any medically sensitive information is uploaded to the national database, and only a handful of lab employees even have access to information that connects those profiles to the names of individuals. And finally, it would be a criminal offense for any lab employee to misuse this information.”
Kyl noted that despite the fact that 6.2 million DNA analyses have been uploaded to the national database since its creation, “There is no known incident of the DNA database ever having been used to violate an individual’s privacy.” Following publication in the Federal Register, the regulations will become effective in 30 days.
