Opting out of DNA collection is not an option
Thirty-year-old Grace Cooper was also in the “free speech zone” when she was arrested in what she described as the “scariest 90 seconds of her life”.
It was his first time at a Broadview protest, and Cooper didn’t know what to expect. That day, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino allegedly decided the arbitrarily designated area was suddenly a “free detention zone,” then ordered protesters to leave the area quickly or face arrest.
Cooper immediately turned to comply, but the agent grabbed him from behind and “slammed him to the ground.” After his arrest, no agent could tell him what his crime was, and he even reported hearing agents discussing what his crime might be.
Cooper was the only one of the protestors who claimed to have refused a DNA sample. The complaint states that such a refusal is a crime, and the agents did not allow him to refuse. A few hours later, the agents released him without charge, dropping him off at a “nearby gas station” and refusing to give any information about whether he was still on the job.
Like others, Cooper’s “biggest fear” after his arrest was “what the government would do with his DNA.”
“He worries that the government will use his DNA to put him on a ‘domestic terrorist watch list’ and monitor his movements at airports, traffic stops and in ways he cannot wait or compete with.”
Carey R. Dunne, founder of the Free + Fair Litigation Group, which represents Briggs in court, He told “The New York Times”. He said the protesters’ lawsuits touched on a “set of constitutional violations that need to be discussed.”
The unverified DNA collection “puts you and your family into a surveillance government database of people critical of this administration,” Dunne said, arguing that “on a scale of one to 10, this is a 10 for authoritarianism.”
Briggs told the NYT that the lawsuit could clarify the DNA Act and restore privacy to countless Americans increasingly affected by the allegedly unconstitutional collection of DNA.
“If we don’t have the right to ourselves, everything will fall apart,” Briggs said.
