The Department of Licensing in Washington State canceled the access permission for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Driver and Plate Search system (DAPS) on Wednesday, August 27, after ICE attempted to access the data of a man in Kirkland, Washington through the system. The man was being targeted for deportation by ICE.
According to spokesman Nate Olson, an investigation confirmed that the data obtained by ICE was used for immigration enforcement, violating the agreement between the Department of Licensing and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The “Keep Washington Working Act” passed in 2019 prohibits most state agencies from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement actions.
Olson stated that agencies using the DAPS system must sign agreements annually, committing not to use the system for immigration enforcement. HSI, responsible for investigating crimes such as drug and weapons smuggling, has signed such agreements. Even though ICE did not have access to DAPS, based on ICE arrest operations confirmed by the state government, there appears to be a communication mechanism between HSI and ICE.
Governor spokesperson Brionna Aho and Olson both emphasized that DAPS is the only system controlled by the state government among all systems in use.
The DAPS system requires only partial license plate information to conduct searches. By entering a number and a letter, all license plates in Washington containing that combination can be retrieved, leading to further information on vehicle owners’ names and addresses.
In 2018, the Seattle Times reported that the Department of Licensing had been regularly providing driver’s license application data to immigration authorities. Additionally, federal officials would directly request information from the Department of Labor through email, and Department of Labor staff would comply. Following the exposure of this practice, the Department of Labor terminated it, stating they would no longer provide information without court orders and announced the resignation of the Deputy Director. Despite this, ICE could still access Department of Licensing data systems through DAPS and other law enforcement agency systems.
The Washington State man who has already been arrested failed to attend a hearing last year, resulting in an order for his deportation from an immigration judge.
The man was arrested on August 4 on charges of assaulting a federal officer after allegedly biting a police officer while they were trying to handcuff him.
Evidence mentioned in the federal indictment came from a search on “record queries from the Washington State Department of Licensing” in May, which led officers to identify the registered owner of a black Dodge Charger sedan under investigation in Kirkland.
The Department of Licensing initially speculated that the query came from a federal database rather than the DAPS system, partly due to the inclusion of photos in the query results, which DAPS does not provide. However, the department discovered that HSI had conducted a DAPS system query with the Kirkland man’s license plate number the following month, two months before his arrest.
In a statement, the Department of Labor expressed, “We are working to prevent the improper acquisition of Washington residents’ information by the federal government. However, there is currently no clear solution on how to balance meeting legitimate law enforcement needs and protecting Washington residents from immigration officials resorting to dishonest means to obtain information.”
(This article is based on reporting from the Seattle Times)