HOUSTON — The United States government announced the launch of a new pilot program to collect DNA from people nationwide and submit it to the FBI, according to a report from the New York Times.

Information collected would be entered into a massive criminal database run by the FBI, where it would be held indefinitely, the report said.

A memo outlining the program published on Monday, January 6 by the Department of Homeland Security said U.S. citizens and permanent residents holding a “green card” who are detained could be subjected to DNA testing, in addition to asylum seekers and people entering the country without authorization.

Refusing to submit DNA could lead to a misdemeanor criminal charge according to the document.

The plan is part of a Trump administration initiative announced last year that seeks to expand the use of biometrics to stop migrant adults from bringing children and falsely posing as parents.

But whistleblowers and civil rights groups have questioned its motives.

“It raises a lot of very serious, practical concerns, I think, and real questions about coercion,” said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Stephen Kang, who questioned whether the government was creating “a DNA bank of immigrants that have come through custody for no clear reason.”

The CBP will collect swabs from people apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol at the Canadian border in or near Detroit, as well as people detained at the official port of entry at Eagle Pass, Texas, across from Piedras Negras in Mexico. The program will last 90 days and began earlier this month.

People as young as 14 will be subject to DNA collection in Detroit.

Agents will not take DNA from people entering the country legally or those who are only held for screening, the report said.

Currently, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is holding more than 40,000 people in medium or long-term detention. The organization said it will designate one of its jails for pilot testing.

On its website, the ACLU  says it has long exposed the collection of such database collections worldwide through legal actions, and says that “there’s a growing risk of that information being collected and used against us or without our consent.”