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2.0

Reported: DHS accesses state DMV records

  1. Original Date Announced

    November 12, 2025

    According to a letter by Democratic members of Congress, DHS has been accessing state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) records—including drivers license and registration information—through the International Justice & Public Safety Network (Nlets), a nonprofit that facilitates data-sharing among law-enforcement agencies. In the year prior to October 1, 2025, Nlets facilitated over 290 million queries for DMV data, 292,114 of which were from ICE and 605,116 were from ICE's Homeland Security Investigations component. The letter urges 19 Democratic governors to block ICE from accessing this data.

    Trump 2.0 [ID #2247]

    2025.11.12 Democratic Congress Members - Letter on DHS Use of State DMV Records
  2. Subsequent Trump and Court Action

    October 31, 2025

    2025.11.25 Reported: Homeland Security wants state driver’s license data for sweeping citizenship program - Stateline

    Stateline reports that, according to an October 31, 2025 federal notice, DHS is planning on connecting Nlets data to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database in order “to check and confirm identity information.” Stateline also reports that USCIS, which administers SAVE, had indicated its interest in Nlets starting in May 2025, seeing it as a “simpler solution” to “avoid having to connect 50 state databases.”

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Current Status

None

Original Trump Policy Status

Status: Reported
Subject Matter: Enforcement
Agencies Affected: State & Local Entities ICE Other

Commentary

  • 2026.01.08 University of Washington - Washington's Continued Sharing of Drivers’ Information with Federal Immigration Enforcement

    The University of Washington Center for Human Rights reports that between January 1, 2025 and November 30, 2025, federal agencies used Nlets to query Washington State licensing data 2,671,776 times. It verified nine cases where Washington residents experienced immigration enforcement while driving, following a search of their license-plate number by federal agents using Nlets.

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  • 2026.03.05 NPR - ICE has spun a massive surveillance web. We talked to people caught in it

    NPR reports on individual stories involving DHS's use of surveillance tools and data, including Nlets, showing how federal agents have deployed such technology to approach and intimidate legal observers.

    Go to article

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