Border agents swabbed a four-year-old’s cheek and uploaded her DNA to the FBI’s criminal database.
Federal agents sent more than 2,700 records into that database every day last year, nearly a million in all, most from people never charged with any crime. Immigration enforcement now captures more profiles than any police force in the country, and the process could not be easier. All it takes is a cotton swab. No judge signs off, and agents swab nearly everyone they detain.
Participation is required. A man who arrived for a probation appointment in Waco found ICE waiting, was ordered to open his mouth, prosecuted when he refused, and convicted. Genetic data sits in federal computers with no expiration date, and DNA never describes just one person. The four-year-old’s file can be used to identify her parents, her siblings, and relatives she will never meet.
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Acting AG Blanche formally kills the $1.8 billion payout fund for Trump's prosecuted allies to win two GOP holdouts, a day after Trump vowed to revive it.
Today’s GovBrief News
Iran and U.S. officials both deny Trump's claim that direct talks began Monday, two days after he canceled strikes on Iranian energy sites.
Source: CBS News
August 3, 2026
Michigan reports the outbreak's first two deaths as cyclosporiasis cases top 11,000, with the last federal update on the multistate outbreak ten days old.
Source: The Michigan Advance
August 3, 2026
Louisiana prepares to transfer 130,000 acres of coastal marshland from an ExxonMobil pollution settlement to SpaceX for a Starship launch site, the Times-Picayune reports.
Source: Ars Technica
August 3, 2026
Transgender federal workers sue OPM over canceled insurance coverage of gender-affirming care, arguing the same treatments remain covered for other employees.
Source: Government Executive
August 3, 2026
Jay Clayton is sworn in as director of national intelligence after refusing at his confirmation hearing to acknowledge Trump lost the 2020 election.
Source: Reuters
August 3, 2026
DOJ pays a 7-figure settlement to a pardoned anti-abortion activist whose clinic-blockade conviction was upheld on appeal, days after killing its weaponization fund.
Source: The Tennessee Lookout
August 3, 2026
Trump says Pirro "choked" in dropping Reflecting Pool charges against an Olympian, rejecting his own prosecutor's 20-page memo finding no evidence of vandalism.
Source: WTTG Washington
August 3, 2026
Federal judge blocks New York's ban on masked ICE agents as unconstitutional state regulation of federal officers, while letting the state's 287(g) prohibition stand.
Source: WABC New York
August 3, 2026
Prosecutors drop the last 3 Reflecting Pool vandalism cases, blaming the Trump administration's own rushed contractor as Trump insists "VANDALS" caused the damage.
Source: USA Today
August 3, 2026
CBP halts new well drilling for border wall construction after New Mexico found contractors illegally drilled 8 wells pumping ranchers' groundwater during a drought.
Source: Source New Mexico
August 3, 2026
ICE added an estimated 920,000 DNA profiles to the FBI's criminal database last year, a WIRED review shows, as border agents swabbed children as young as 4.
Source: Wired
August 3, 2026
New Jersey Congressman Rob Menendez discloses a second detainee death at Delaney Hall after an oversight visit, accusing ICE of intentionally hiding custody deaths.
Source: WPIX New York
August 3, 2026
Water system cyberattacks spread to Michigan as utilities in at least 7 states report intrusions to the FBI, some forcing full shutdowns.
Source: News Nation
August 3, 2026
House Ethics panel recommends censure for GOP Rep. Chuck Edwards, finding his conduct toward 2 young staffers violated the "spirit" of harassment rules.
Source: The Hill
August 3, 2026
Senate GOP holdouts Cornyn and Tillis agree to advance Blanche's attorney general nomination after DOJ puts the weaponization fund's death in writing.
Source: Roll Call
August 3, 2026
Capital One tells a court it closed more than 300 Trump Organization accounts after an anti-money laundering review, rejecting the family's political-bias lawsuit.
Source: CNBC
August 3, 2026
Watchdogs demand ethics probes of FCC chair Carr and Commissioner Trusty for accepting luxury Paramount gala tickets hours before it launched a merger they must approve.
Source: ProPublica
August 3, 2026
Rochester City Council unanimously approves $125K in emergency housing, legal and family-preparedness support for immigrants and refugees facing ICE detention.
Source: WXXI Rochester
August 3, 2026
25 states sue to block Trump's third round of worldwide tariffs, calling forced-labor claims a pretext to revive taxes the Supreme Court struck down.
Source: The Independent
August 3, 2026