Pennsylvania inadvertently making drivers’ license data available to ICE
In a letter to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Democratic lawmakers are letting the Commonwealth and other states know that a little-understood digital loophole could be making drivers’ data available to U.S. immigration authorities.
The correspondence from U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and 39 other members of Congress including Pennsylvania Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-04) and Summer Lee (D-12) urges Shapiro to block ICE’s access, as Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Washington have already done and Oregon is in the process of doing, and to consider going further by blocking access to other federal agencies that are now acting as Trump’s shock troops.”
ICE is able to retrieve this information because the Pennsylvania State Police provides outside law enforcement agencies with real-time access to PennDOT’s database that includes drivers’ licenses and other state-issued ID cards. The data sharing is done through a non-profit organization managed by state police agencies known as “Nlets” – the International Justice & Public Safety Network.
The Nlets website says “we are the information superhighway of the law enforcement community. Just like a highway exists to transport vehicles, we exist to move criminal justice information where it needs to go. However, it is important to note that we do not own any of the data that is being used in the criminal justice or public safety realm – we exist solely for the purpose of securely accessing that information and providing it to the criminal justice community.”
ICE and Homeland Security Investigation also have access to the system and have combined for approximately 900,000 queries against the database from Oct. 1, 2024 through Sept. 30, 2025.
The letter states that each state can determine what data it wishes to make available through Nlets, as well as the specific agencies that can or cannot access its data.
“According to public data published by Nlets, 20 states and the District of Columbia allow law enforcement agencies to search drivers’ license records using any individual’s name and date of birth. In contrast, all 50 states and the District allow agencies to search driver data using a driver’s license number. In theory, drivers’ license number searches are less likely to be used for dragnet surveillance; however, drivers’ license numbers are readily available for purchase from commercial data brokers.”
The authors say the reason that only four states – Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New York – have locked down the data is because of an information gap. Few state government officials understand how their states’ residents data is being shared and have not been properly briefed on the current scale of information being shared with ICE and other federal agencies.
After engaging with Congressional Democrats, the state of Washington is planning to block ICE’s access to DMV data, while Oregon is also moving in that direction.
“To be clear, blocking agencies’ unfettered access to your state’s data through Nlets will not prevent federal law enforcement from obtaining information needed to investigate serious crimes, but taking these measures will significantly increase accountability and reduce abuse by permitting your state employees to review data requests from blocked agencies first.”
Steve Ulrich is managing editor of Politics PA.
