The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday it will soon begin collecting DNA samples from the hundreds of thousands of migrants arrested each year by immigration authorities. The data would be stored in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, a massive national criminal database accessible to state and federal law enforcement agencies. Among those who would have their DNA taken and sequenced under the Trump administration plan are children and asylum seekers who have broken no U.S. laws. Attorney Vera Eidelman of the American Civil Liberties Union condemned the plan, writing, “This kind of mass collection alters the purpose of DNA collection from one of criminal investigation to population surveillance, which is contrary to our basic notions of freedom and autonomy.”