The Trump administration wants to collect genetic material from unauthorized immigrants in government custody, according to a draft policy that was first reported by BuzzFeed News.

If the policy takes effect, it would allow officials from Customs and Border Protection to start testing the DNA of detained immigrants.

BuzzFeed News cited estimates that CBP officials could spend upward of 20,000 work hours implementing the policy in its first year — and that hundreds of thousands of people could be eligible for testing.

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The Trump administration wants to collect genetic material from unauthorized immigrants in government custody, according to a draft policy first reported by BuzzFeed News.

If the new policy takes effect, it would allow officials from Customs and Border Protection to collect and test DNA of detained immigrants. BuzzFeed News cited estimates that CBP officials could spend upward of 20,000 work hours implementing the policy in its first year — and that hundreds of thousands of people could be subject to it.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security would rely on software designed to collect DNA in as little as five minutes, BuzzFeed News reported.

The draft does not bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement — the main government body that detains and deports people over immigration violations — from taking part in the program, BuzzFeed News reported. A Department of Homeland Security official said in the report that ICE piloted a program near the US-Mexico border in which it took voluntary tests of people to identify fraudulent family claims.

Read more: A new Trump administration rule undermines key protections and sanitary standards for migrant children. The move is dangerous and cruel

According to PolitiFact, ICE released data in June that revealed 20% of cases generated DNA evidence disproving a family relationship.

Former immigration officials told BuzzFeed News that collecting DNA material from immigrants would most likely waste agents' time and drain their resources.

"In many ways, it's unnecessary from a law-enforcement perspective," said John Sandweg, a senior immigration official in the Obama administration. "I don't understand what you're going to get out of it. The idea that some guy crossing the border committed a crime returned and came back all undetected is very remote."

Such a policy would most likely draw pushback from immigrant advocates and civil-liberties groups who argue that the federal government should not collect that type of personal information from people unless it's meant to solve a specific crime.

The DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005 allows federal agencies to collect DNA from any person in their custody. Trump administration officials contend that testing would aid officials at the border processing migrants.