"Democratic lawmakers say some states that don't want to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may be unintentionally allowing the agency access to residents' driver and criminal records through a law-enforcement data network. A group of 40 congressional Democrats, led by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representative Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), sent letters to 19 Democratic governors on Wednesday warning them of an "information gap" that has allowed ICE to collect driver's license and registration information from the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System."
"Also known as Nlets, the network, operated by private nonprofit the International Justice & Public Safety Network, links law-enforcement systems from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and roughly 18,000 federal, state, local, and Canadian agencies. Along with driver's license and vehicle registration records, Nlets carries information such as criminal histories, concealed-weapon permit data, and other law-enforcement files shared between jurisdictions."
""Because of the technical complexity of Nlets' system, few state government officials understand how their state is sharing their residents' data with federal and out-of-state agencies," the letters read. "Elected officials ... have not been fully briefed on the current scale of state information sharing with ICE and other federal agencies, nor the availability of technical controls to restrict data sharing with these federal agencies.""
Forty congressional Democrats warned that an information gap has enabled ICE to pull driver's license and registration data from the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (Nlets). Nlets, run by the International Justice & Public Safety Network, links law-enforcement systems across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and about 18,000 agencies, carrying records including criminal histories and concealed-weapon permit data. States maintain granular opt-in controls, but the technical complexity of Nlets means many state officials do not understand how resident data is shared or how to restrict federal access. Nlets has played a significant, opaque role in immigration enforcement.
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