The Trump administration released a proposed rule Monday that would mandate the collection of DNA from migrants and other non-U.S. citizens who are being detained, including those at the southern border.

Should the rule be implemented as written or with little change, it will allow the government to amass a cache of genetic information on hundreds of thousands of migrants each year who are not suspected of any crime other than unauthorized border crossing.

While officials say the proposal will help authorities better investigate crime and assess individuals who make illegal border crossings, the rule is likely to draw criticism from rights groups and immigration advocates who object to the collection of DNA from migrants not suspected of other crimes and who are concerned with what the government will do with the information.

The rule would not apply to immigrants entering the U.S. legally or permanent legal residents but would apply to almost all migrants who cross the border between ports of entry and are detained by Customs and Border Protection or other immigration agencies. It was not immediately clear if the rule will apply to migrants who are seeking asylum in the U.S. CBP already collects the fingerprints of everyone in its custody over the age of 14.

The Department of Homeland Security recently piloted a DNA-collection program targeting immigrants and gave reporters an overview of the proposal earlier this month, but the full scope of the future policy was unclear.

Under the proposed plan, the DNA of all immigrants and non-citizens detained by immigration agencies would be entered into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS – a federal DNA database that houses the genetic information of people arrested for, charged with and convicted of crimes.

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"The proposed rule change would help to save lives and bring criminals to justice by restoring the authority of the Attorney General to authorize and direct the collection of DNA from non-United States persons detained at the border and the interior by DHS, with the ultimate goal of reducing victimization of innocent citizens," Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen said in a statement.

Officials cite a federal statute – the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005 – that allows officials to collect DNA from people in their custody. That statute has several exemptions, including one that allows the homeland security secretary to opt out of DNA collection because of resource limitations.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in 2010 said that collecting genetic information from immigrant detainees was not feasible. The newly proposed rule eliminates homeland security's ability to exempt itself from the original statute, thus nullifying Napolitano's decision and ultimately allowing immigration agencies to collect DNA from detained migrants and non-U.S. citizens.

Some 743,000 immigrants this year fell into the category previously exempted from DNA collection, according to officials. Immigration officials currently collect genetic information on a much more restricted basis, such as when a migrant is prosecuted for a crime.