ICE awarded $10.1 million contract to expand rapid DNA testing program used to verify familial relationships during enforcement operations

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded a $10.1 million contract to expand a rapid DNA testing program that officials say is used to verify claimed family relationships during immigration enforcement operations, according to federal spending records reviewed by Newsweek.

The one-year task order was awarded to Virginia-based SNA International LLC and runs through August 9, 2027.

Contract details and scope

The award supports ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations field offices, which oversee immigration arrests, detention and removals. The government’s description of the task order says it provides rapid DNA tests, equipment and services to verify biological relationships.

Journalist Benjamin S. Weiss first reported the contracting documents for Courthouse News Service, which reported that the Department of Homeland Security had spent an additional $10.1 million on rapid DNA testing equipment and services tied to enforcement operations.

Latin Times separately reported that the task order is distinct from the broader DNA collection program that places genetic profiles from immigration detainees into the FBI‘s Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS.

A growing federal contract history

The new award follows a $6.24 million contract issued to SNA International in 2025 for the same purpose, according to federal records cited by Newsweek. Together, the two task orders represent more than $16 million in federal obligations tied to the rapid DNA program, according to USAspending.gov.

The 2025 award was the subject of a formal bid protest. Bode Technology, a competing forensic services firm, challenged the contract before the Government Accountability Office on May 23, 2025, arguing that ICE improperly awarded it to SNA International as a sole-source contract, according to Bloomberg Law.

The GAO rejected the protest in a decision reported by Bloomberg Law. The agency found that ICE had reasonably determined the rapid DNA program “derives from, extends, or completes” work SNA International had previously performed under a federally funded small business research contract.

According to the GAO decision, SNA International received a Department of Homeland Security research contract in 2019 to develop a DNA “reach-back” system for rapid field testing. A second contract in 2020 further developed the technology, including software called DNAConnect and a related technical support center.

Officials and company response

Steve Niezgoda, chief executive of SNA International, told Newsweek that the company does not discuss specific government programs or operations as a matter of policy.

Scott Mechkowski, who retired in 2018 as ICE’s deputy field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations in New York, told Newsweek that rapid DNA testing has been used for years to verify family relationships and is not a new enforcement tool.

“This isn’t about Big Brother,” Mechkowski said, adding that the purpose is to confirm the identities of people who claim to be guardians of minors.

Newsweek contacted ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment by email. A DHS spokesperson did not respond to repeated requests from Courthouse News Service.

Privacy and civil liberties concerns

Stevie Glaberson, director of research and advocacy at Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, told Newsweek that many people subjected to the testing do not understand why their DNA was collected or how it will be used.

Glaberson noted that DNA differs from other biometric identifiers because it can reveal information about relatives across multiple generations, not just the person tested.

A July report from Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology estimated that ICE agents captured DNA from as many as 900,000 people in 2025, according to Courthouse News Service. The report said those genetic records are entered into CODIS, the FBI database that also contains profiles submitted by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

More than 3 million CODIS entries were indexed as “detainee” profiles as of December 2025, according to the Georgetown report cited by Courthouse News Service.

The report also found that federal agents collected genetic samples from roughly 133,000 children as young as four, as well as hundreds of elderly detainees, including a 96-year-old.

Legal questions remain unresolved

Ric Simmons, a law professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, told Courthouse News Service that the legal basis courts have relied on to permit DNA collection, the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Maryland v. King, applied to people arrested on probable cause for serious crimes rather than civil immigration violations.

“There’s a bit of immigration exceptionalism,” Simmons said, describing the government’s likely argument that the testing serves a purpose beyond ordinary law enforcement.

Missy Owen, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, told Courthouse News Service that the lack of court rulings on the practice does not establish its constitutionality.

“This is the birth of a genetic panopticon,” Owen said, describing CODIS as a permanent surveillance tool built from detainees’ genetic information.

Simmons told Courthouse News Service that immigration detainees have limited legal recourse even if a court later finds the DNA collection unlawful. Evidence gathered improperly can still be used in deportation proceedings, unlike in criminal cases.

The legal and regulatory framework

The rapid DNA program’s legal authority traces to the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005, which authorized federal officials to collect DNA from people arrested, charged or convicted of federal crimes as well as noncitizens detained under federal authority, according to Latin Times.

A Justice Department regulatory change that took effect in 2020 expanded DHS’s authority to collect DNA samples more broadly.

ICE’s use of rapid DNA testing to identify potentially fraudulent family claims dates to a pilot program launched in May 2019 during Trump’s first administration, according to an ICE news release dated June 18, 2019.

During a three-day operational test from May 8 to May 10, 2019, ICE tested 84 family units suspected of possible fraud and identified 16 as fraudulent, according to the release.

Derek Benner, then ICE Homeland Security Investigations executive associate director, said the program had two goals, including protecting children from being smuggled across the border by ensuring they were traveling with their biological parents.

What remains undisclosed

Publicly available award records and the GAO decision do not detail ICE policies governing consent, sample collection, storage, retention or destruction of genetic information gathered through the ERO program, according to Newsweek.

The records also do not specify what procedural options, if any, are available to families when a rapid DNA test fails to confirm a claimed biological relationship.