A coalition of Democratic lawmakers has issued an urgent warning to governors in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Wisconsin, revealing that their states are inadvertently exposing sensitive driver information to federal immigration authorities. The disclosure centers on the unauthorized flow of Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) data to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) via a third-party network.
The Nlets Data Loophole
At the heart of the controversy is the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (Nlets), a nonprofit managed by state police agencies. According to reports, Nlets provides federal agencies with “frictionless, self-service access” to the personal data of state residents.
For the past twenty years, this system has allowed roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the U.S. and Canada to bypass state oversight. These entities can query DMV databases directly without the knowledge or intervention of state employees, effectively creating a massive, unregulated information pipeline.
High-Stakes Surveillance and Facial Recognition
Lawmakers expressed deep concern that ICE is leveraging this access to feed its “Mobile Fortify” facial recognition application. This tool, which relies on a database of 200 million photos, allows field agents to identify individuals on the street in real-time.
Data provided in the congressional letter highlights the scale of the exposure: in the year leading up to October 1, 2025, Nlets facilitated over 290 million total queries for DMV data. Of those, ICE accounted for 290,000 requests, while Homeland Security Investigations initiated approximately 600,000 queries.
Calls for Immediate Policy Reform
The letter argues that most state officials remain unaware of the technical complexity of the Nlets system, leading to an “information gap” that keeps state data exposed. Lawmakers are urging governors to block “unfettered access” for federal agencies, emphasizing that this move would not hinder legitimate investigations into serious crimes but would instead mandate that state employees review and approve data requests.
The push for reform is already gaining traction. Several states, including Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Washington, have recently implemented restrictions on the types of data ICE can access through Nlets. Lawmakers have reminded governors in the remaining states that they retain the executive authority to terminate this practice immediately.
As of this writing, both ICE and Nlets have declined to provide comments regarding the security concerns raised by the congressional correspondence.