Lawmakers warn Democratic governors that states are sharing drivers’ data with ICE

A radical of Democratic lawmakers person sent letters to respective authorities governors, including successful Arizona, California, Colorado, and Wisconsin, informing that their states are inadvertently sharing drivers’ information with national migration authorities.

The letter, which was first reported by Reuters, told governors that their states are providing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and different national agencies “with frictionless, self-service entree to the idiosyncratic information of each of your residents,” done a non-profit managed by authorities constabulary agencies called the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, oregon Nlets.

Nlets facilitates the sharing of authorities residents’ idiosyncratic data, successful this lawsuit drivers’ licence data, betwixt state, local, and national constabulary agencies. 

The lawmakers asked the radical of governors to halt the signifier and artifact entree to ICE and “other national agencies that are present acting arsenic Trump’s daze troops.” 

ICE and Nlets did not instantly respond to TechCrunch’s petition for comment. 

For 2 decades, astir states person made their residents’ data, specified arsenic drivers’ licenses and different accusation from each state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) database, disposable for hunt and retrieval to astir 18,000 national and section instrumentality enforcement agencies crossed the U.S. and Canada. This signifier allows those agencies to straight entree residents’ information without the cognition oregon engagement of immoderate authorities employee, according to the letter.

The missive said that it’s imaginable that ICE is utilizing drivers’ licence photos for their facial designation app called Mobile Fortify, which agents are utilizing to place radical connected the thoroughfare and relies connected 200 cardinal photos.

According to the letter, Nlets facilitated “over 290 cardinal queries for DMV data,” with much than 290,000 queries from ICE and immoderate 600,000 from Homeland Security Investigations during the twelvemonth earlier October 1, 2025. 

“It is present abundantly wide that a large crushed that truthful fewer states person locked down the information they stock done Nlets is due to the fact that of an accusation gap,” reads the letter. “Because of the method complexity of Nlets’ system, fewer authorities authorities officials recognize however their authorities is sharing their residents’ information with national and out-of-state agencies,” work the letter. 

The missive said blocking the agencies’ “unfettered access” would not forestall national agencies obtaining accusation from states for solving superior crimes, but taking enactment would “increase accountability and trim abuse” by allowing authorities employees to reappraisal information requests first.

The lawmakers noted that immoderate states, including Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Washington precocious restricted what benignant of information ICE tin entree via Nlets, and reminded the governors that it is up to them to halt the signifier astatine immoderate time.