That breaks a promise the state made a decade ago when it began issuing licenses to unauthorized immigrants, advocates say, and it means more than 1 million people may face higher risk of deportation.
But if state officials don’t turn over the data, the Department of Homeland Security may refuse to accept California licenses and IDs at airports, the advocates believe, following a briefing with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month. State authorities confirmed they plan to share the data to comply with the Real ID Act of 2005, which set requirements for accepting state identification at federal facilities such as airports.
Representatives from four advocacy groups who participated in the briefing told CalMatters the shared information will show 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 Assn. of Motor Vehicle Administrators, a nonprofit organization whose governing board is made up of DMV officials from across the country.
The 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 contractors that work with them to verify that a person doesn’t have duplicate licenses in multiple states.
In the future, an ID database like the one the association maintains could be used to support mobile licenses that people can use on their iPhones or online age verification for access to mature content or chatbots.
But advocates fear that federal immigration officials will try to gain bulk access to the data and use the fact that a person doesn’t have a Social Security number as a signal that they’re deportable.
The state received assurances from the association that safeguards will be added to prevent bulk searches for unauthorized immigrant license holders in the database and to prevent access by Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to people who joined the briefing with the DMV and the governor’s office. But they remain skeptical.
“Once this data is uploaded to AAMVA, it’s out of California’s control, no matter what California wants, no matter what protests we may make,” said Ed Hasbrouck with San Francisco civil liberties group the Identity Project. Hasbrouck was also on the briefing call.
To carry out the plan to share data with the association, the California Legislature will need to approve $55 million to cover the DMV’s costs. It may also need to amend existing law, which states that a Social Security number obtained by the DMV cannot be shared for any other purpose than to address unpaid taxes, parking tickets or child support.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office declined to confirm details of the call or respond to specific concerns from advocates.
“California continues to lead in supporting immigrant families and protecting personal data from federal overreach,” the spokesperson, Diana Crofts-Pelayo, wrote in an email. “The state has taken the same approach to protect Californians’ data during the Real ID implementation, while maintaining Real ID compliance for the benefit of all Californians.”
Ian Grossman, the chief executive of the American Assn. of Motor Vehicle Administrators, told CalMatters that participation in the verification system is voluntary and that only authorized state employees or contractors have access to the system, that bulk searches of the system are not currently allowed and that 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 invited undocumented people to obtain driver’s licenses in order to support public safety and the economy. Economists say that such laws improve economic activity, drive billions of dollars in taxes into state coffers and benefit public safety because people who lack federal authorization to be in the country can feel more comfortable reporting criminal activity.
More than 1 million people have obtained driver’s licenses in California under Assembly Bill 60, a law passed in 2013. The law prohibits the state from using information obtained in the licensure process to consider an individual’s citizenship.
But the multistate verification system can reveal 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 that person has no 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 on undocumented Californians, by asking local officials to make requests on their behalf.
That sort of end run would not be without precedent.
CalMatters reported on instances last year and this year in which local law enforcement agencies broke state law and shared information gathered by automated license plate readers with ICE or Border Patrol agents.
The DMV and the governor’s office say the association will notify California of requests from any entity other than a participating state, including attempts to subpoena the database for information about California license holders, providing them with the opportunity to challenge subpoenas or intervene in other requests. But if a subpoena is accompanied by a gag order, the association could not deliver any such notification. An agreement between the association and the California DMV obtained by CalMatters states that the association will inform California “if legally permitted” if it receives a subpoena “to release, disclose, discuss, or obtain access to S2S information.”
Hasbrouck believes the DMV and governor’s office “must have known” the reassurances they got from the association were “hollow given the possibility of gag orders.”
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, since the association is not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests or open meeting laws.
Advocates see ‘a direct betrayal’
Advocates who spoke with CalMatters said sharing the driver’s license information with the association sells out immigrant license holders. The law that created the program prohibits the state from using information the program gathers to determine citizenship.
“It’s unclear how extreme the danger people are being put into by this decision, but there’s no doubt we told people with AB 60 licenses this would never happen, but it’s happening, and that’s a direct betrayal,” said Tracy Rosenberg, head of advocacy at Oakland Privacy, who was also on the call.
Linda Nguy, an associate director at the Western Center on Law and Poverty, compared the disclosure 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. That was a violation of federal law, department officials concluded, according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press.
Pedro Rios, director of the U.S.-Mexico Border Program at the American Friends Service Committee, was not on the call, but echoed Rosenberg and Nguy, calling the data-sharing plan “a betrayal of California’s commitment to protect and defend all its residents, especially those who have an AB 60 driver’s license.”
Becca Cramer-Mowder, who was on the call representing the Electronic Frontier Foundation, questioned why the governor’s office and DMV are in a rush to comply with the Real ID Act two decades after it passed at a time of increased pressure from the Trump administration.
“It just seems like we’re missing the bigger picture of this moment in time,” she said.
The plan to share license information with the database depends on the state budget process because the DMV is requesting $55 million to move the data over to the association’s systems.
At a state Senate budget hearing last month to approve the funding, lawmakers questioned 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 explore the reasoning behind 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 the lawmakers that the state unsuccessfully tried to persuade the motor vehicle association to consider a unique identifier other than a Social Security number and “anybody who has a Social Security number that’s sharing information of course would have a concern.” But he told the lawmakers “we need to go. We need to go now.”
DMV spokesperson Jaime Garza said that Californians can submit a request to surrender or cancel a driver’s license, but that driving without a license is illegal.
Nick Miller, a spokesperson 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 relentless attacks — and ensuring Californians are empowered and defended — continues to be a top priority for the Speaker,” he said in an email.
Rosenberg with Oakland Privacy suggested that the state might be better off opting out of the Real ID system than sharing information about its license holders, noting that more than 60% of Californians already have passports.
“I just wonder what would happen if the state asked Californians to get a passport in order to fly for a couple of years in order to protect 1 million Californians with AB 60 licenses. Maybe we should give people that opportunity.”
Johnson and Fry write for CalMatters.
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