![]() ![]() This 2012 memorandum precedes the 2013 decision to allow undocumented immigrants access to driver’s licenses, raising the possibility that some lawmakers could have been aware of ICE’s access when the push was being made to give undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses.įor his part, Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan has refused to condemn the practice and said he will not support recently introduced legislation to place limits on ICE’s ability to conduct warrantless searches of MVA records. The origins of ICE’s access to the Maryland database remain murky, however Lam told the Post he gathered from meetings with ICE officials that it started with a 2012 memorandum of understanding. And it wasn’t until they finally were detaining him and taking him to the car that they were telling him they were arresting him because of a license.” She further said that they have never before had any encounters with immigration or criminal law enforcement authorities. The kids that were there, they didn’t give the kids any explanation. Speaking to lawmakers through an interpreter, she said, “They came to the house. The Post quotes Rockville resident Maribel Cortez, who told a court hearing how Jose Santos Quintero, her husband of 21 years and father of five with her, was arrested. Further, several immigrants detained by ICE have claimed they were told by law enforcement officials that they were found based on information taken from their driver’s licenses. Given the complete absence of oversight, these assurances cannot be given any value. They’ve not been forthcoming in their willingness to or coming up with solutions.”Ī spokeswoman for ICE, while refusing to go into details, claimed that the agency did not “routinely” use facial-recognition searches for civil immigration enforcement. Lam (D-Howard), “They have a wide-open door to be able to search through anything in this database. Harrison Rudolph, a senior associate at Georgetown University Law School’s Center on Privacy and Technology, told the Post that it appears that any law enforcement official with access to the National Crime Information Center maintained by the FBI can search the state’s database, calling it “an unprecedented level of access for federal agents-including ICE deportation agents.”Īccording to Maryland Sen. In the case of the Maryland database, ICE agents anywhere in the country are able to search through it without seeking approval from state officials. In other states such as Utah, Vermont and Washington, ICE has had access for years to the driver’s license databases but required a state official to actually run the search. The Washington Post broke the story based on a previously unpublished letter, according to which a top Maryland law enforcement official told state lawmakers in November that ICE officials had logged nearly 100 sessions in the Maryland driver’s license database since 2018, each of which could have included multiple searches. ![]() Since that time, the state has issued over 275,000 licenses. Beginning in 2013 Maryland allowed immigrants to get driver’s licenses without supplying proof of legal immigration status, despite federal guidelines. The software employed by ICE allows an agent to take a photograph of an unidentified person and see if they have a Maryland license and whether they are undocumented. The data for driver’s licenses is collected by the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA). US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been using facial-recognition software to search through Maryland’s state database of registered drivers and hunt down undocumented immigrants without seeking state or court approval. ![]()
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