Immigration agents collected DNA samples from about 2,000 U.S. citizens who were stopped at border checkpoints over a four-year period, even though hundreds of them were not charged, researchers at Georgetown University said in a report Tuesday.

The report by Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology is based on data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in February. The data came from forms that immigration agents fill out when they send genetic information to an FBI database of convicted criminals, missing persons and evidence from crime scenes.

The report’s authors argued that border agents were exceeding their authority with the collections, accusing them of violating U.S. citizens’ rights under the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures

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