Keep ICE Out of Our DMV Data

ICE wants citizens to know they’re being watched — and it has the technology to back it up. In Minneapolis, ICE officers scanned citizens’ faces at demonstrations, then warned that the citizens were going to be added to a government database. Their message is clear: We know who you are. We know where you live. We’re watching. ICE’s toolkit for identifying and intimidating protesters includes a vast array of technologies, many of which remain shrouded in secrecy. Companies like Flock Safety and Motorola Solutions operate cameras across the country that can be used to track vehicles’ location histories and identify their owners. Many states also provide ICE with unrestricted access to their DMV data through Nlets, a data-sharing network for law enforcement agencies across the U.S. This allows ICE agents to gather troves of information on individuals in the field using only license plates without obtaining a judicial warrant. The result: ICE can determine who citizens are, where they live, where they’ve been, and who they associate with. Our state must immediately work to restrict ICE access to DMV data to prevent ICE from threatening and intimidating people.