California is preparing to share detailed information about driver’s license holders, including immigrants who do not have legal authorization to remain in the United States, with an outside organization.
Advocates say it breaks a promise the state made a decade ago when it began issuing licenses to unauthorized immigrants, and means more than 1 million people could face a higher risk of deportation.
But if state officials don’t hand over the data, the Department of Homeland Security could refuse to accept California licenses and IDs at airports, advocates believe, after a briefing earlier this month with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. State officials confirmed they plan to share the data to comply with the Real ID Act of 2005, which sets requirements for accepting state identification at federal facilities such as airports.
Representatives from four advocacy groups who attended the briefing told CalMatters that the information shared would reveal whether a person has a Social Security number, meaning it could be used to identify people in the country without authorization.
The state plans to provide the information to the American Association. Motor Vehicle Administrators, a non-profit organization whose governing board is composed of DMV officials from across the country.
Information given to the association will go into the group’s state-to-state verification system and its platform, known as SPEXS, which allows DMVs and the contractors they work with to verify that a person does not have duplicate licenses in multiple states.
In the future, the ID database created by the association can be used to support Mobile licenses that people can use on their iPhone or online age verification For access to mature content or chatbots.
But advocates fear that federal immigration officials will try to gain access to vast amounts of data and use the fact that a person does not have a Social Security number as a sign that they are deportable.
According to people who attended the briefing with the DMV and the governor’s office, the state received assurances from the association that safeguards would be added to the database to prevent large-scale searches of unauthorized immigrant license holders and access by Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But they remain skeptical.
Ed Hasbrouck of the San Francisco civil liberties group Identity Project said, “Once this data is uploaded to AAMVA, it is out of California’s control, no matter what California wants, no matter how much we protest.” Hasbrouck was also on the briefing call.
To complete the data sharing plan with the association, the California Legislature will need to approve $55 million to cover the DMV’s costs. This may also require amendments to existing law, which states that a social security number The funds received by the DMV cannot be shared for any purpose other than unpaid taxes, parking tickets or child support.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office declined to confirm details of the call or respond to advocates’ specific concerns.
“California continues to be a leader in supporting immigrant families and protecting personal data from federal overreach,” spokeswoman Diana Crofts-Pelayo wrote in an email. “The state has taken a similar approach to protecting Californians’ data during Real ID implementation, while maintaining Real ID compliance for the benefit of all Californians.”
Ian Grossman, chief executive of the American Association. Motor vehicle administrators told CalMatters that participation in the verification system is voluntary and only authorized state employees or contractors have access to the system, bulk searches of the system are not currently allowed and all searches must contain specific information about an individual, such as their name and date of birth.
Social Security Number ‘99999’
For more than a decade, California and 18 other states have invited undocumented people to obtain driver’s licenses to support public safety and the economy. Economists say that such laws improvement in economic activityDeposit billions of dollars in taxes into state coffers and benefit public safety as people who lack federal authorization to reside in the country may feel more comfortable reporting criminal activity.
More than 1 million people have obtained a driver’s license in California under Assembly Bill 60A law passed in 2013. This law prohibits the state from using information obtained in the licensing process to consider a person’s citizenship.
But the multistate verification system can tell whether a person is an undocumented immigrant. According to an association manual obtained by CalMatters, the database will include the last five digits of a person’s Social Security number, and if the person does not have a Social Security number, the association allows states to use the placeholder “99999.”
Advocates fear that federal immigration officials could gain access to information in the database, including information on undocumented Californians, by asking local officials to make requests on their behalf.
That kind of end won’t happen without example.
CalMatters reported Examples from last year and this year In which local law enforcement agencies broke state law and shared information collected by automated license plate readers with ICE or Border Patrol agents.
The DMV and the governor’s office say the association will notify California about requests from any entity other than a participating state, including attempts to subpoena the database for information about California license holders, providing them an opportunity to challenge the subpoena or intervene in other requests. But if a restraining order has been issued along with a summons, the association cannot give any such notification. An agreement between the association and the California DMV obtained by CalMatters states that the association will notify California “if legally permitted” if it receives a subpoena to “release, disclose, discuss, or gain access to S2S information.”
Hasbrouck believes that the DMV and the Governor’s office “should have known” that the assurances they received from the association “rang hollow given the possibility of a gag order.”
He also said that, as a private entity, the association has less protection from court orders or subpoenas than a government agency. Its data sharing is also more easily hidden, as the association is not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests or open meetings laws.
Lawyers see ‘straight up betrayal’
Advocates who spoke to CalMatters said sharing driver’s license information with the association disadvantages immigrant license holders. The law creating the program prohibits states from using information collected by the program to determine citizenship.
Tracy Rosenberg, head of advocacy at Oakland Privacy, who was on the call, said, “It’s not clear how great a risk this decision poses to people, but there’s no doubt that we told people with AB 60 licenses that this would never happen, but it’s happening and it’s a straight-up betrayal.”
Linda Nguyen, associate director of the Western Center on Law and Poverty, compared the revelations to a move last summer by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy to share data about millions of noncitizens with federal immigration agencies. This was a violation of federal law, According to a memo obtained by The Associated Press, department officials concluded.
Pedro Rios, Director US-Mexico border program The American Friends Service Committee, not on the call, but Rosenberg and Nguyen called the data-sharing plan “a betrayal of California’s commitment to protect and defend all of its residents, especially those who have an AB 60 driver’s license.”
Becca Cramer-Mauder, who was representing the Electronic Frontier Foundation on the call, questioned why the Governor’s Office and DMV are in a hurry to comply with the Real ID Act two decades after it was passed at a time of increasing pressure from the Trump administration.
“It seems like we’re missing the bigger picture of this moment in time,” he said.
Plans to share license information with the database depend on the state budget process as the DMV is requesting $55 million to transfer the data to the association’s system.
in a state Senate budget hearing last month In approving the funding, lawmakers raised questions about why the state should follow a timeline set by a private organization and share part of Californians’ Social Security numbers. They also asked the DMV to find out the reasoning behind this A lawsuit filed by Oklahoma lawmakers in January to block data sharing with the association, in which they argued that sharing personal data collected for driver’s licenses violates state law there.
California DMV Director Steve Gordon told lawmakers that the state tried unsuccessfully to convince the Motor Vehicle Association to consider a unique identifier in addition to the Social Security number and that “anyone who has a Social Security number who is sharing information would certainly have concerns.” But he told lawmakers, “We need to go. We need to go now.”
DMV spokesman Jaime Garza said Californians can submit a request to surrender or revoke a driver’s license, but it remains illegal to drive without a license.
Nick Miller, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), told CalMatters that lawmakers are continuing to work on the policy issue.
“Protecting immigrant communities from the Trump Administration’s continued attacks — and ensuring Californians are empowered and protected — remains a top priority for the Speaker,” he said in an email.
Rosenberg with Oakland Privacy suggested that it might be better for the state to opt out of the Real ID system than to share information about its license holders, noting that More than 60% of Californians already have Passport.
“I just wonder what would happen if the state protected the 1 million Californians with AB 60 licenses by asking Californians to get passports to fly for a few years. Maybe we should give people that opportunity.”
Johnson and Fry write for CalMatters.
