ICE using driver's license data in Maryland immigration enforcement

Federal immigration agents in Maryland used the state’s driver’s license database — without citing a traffic violation or outstanding warrant — to detain a driver in Howard County, a federal affidavit shows, raising legal and policy questions about how the information is used in immigration enforcement.

As part of “Operation Take Back America,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers ran license plate checks in January on about 10 vehicles using law enforcement databases that include driver’s license and registration information, the FBI affidavit states.

Nine of those checks did not lead to enforcement action. The 10th involved Santos Alvarenga-Rodriguez, 47, whom ICE agents questioned and detained after agents flagged restrictions on his Maryland driver’s license.

The Rodriguez case is drawing scrutiny because nearly a quarter-million Maryland drivers carry similar license restrictions — an “A” designation that means the license can’t be used to purchase a firearm, or a “U” designation, which means it can’t be used for federal purposes, like boarding an airplane. People in Maryland who can’t prove lawful residency could have such restrictions on their licenses, as could many others. For example, an “A” restriction could indicate the driver has a felony conviction and isn’t allowed to purchase a firearm.

If broadly applied, the tactic could subject large numbers of people to questioning by federal agents, even if they’re not suspected of a criminal or traffic violation.

The arrest of Alvarenga-Rodriguez “100% confirms our fears that ICE is just searching records of random people and then using whatever information they retrieve from those searches to profile someone, in this case, make a (traffic) stop for further detention, with the goal of deportation,” said Ninfa Amador-Hernandez, Maryland policy manager for We Are CASA. The immigrants’ rights organization is supporting legislation by Maryland state Sen. Clarence Lam, a Democrat who represents Baltimore and Howard counties, designed to close off ICE’s access to driver’s license data.

Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Harris told The Baltimore Sun in an email that he sees nothing wrong with ICE using driver’s license restrictions as an investigative tool.

“Police routinely use license plate and driver’s license data to identify potential violations of the law,” Harris said. “As long as this is acceptable for other violations of the law, that data should also be used to identify violators of immigration law.”

It is unclear how ICE agents accessed the database. ICE did not respond to questions about its use of driver’s licenses and vehicle registration data as investigative tools. The Baltimore Sun provided the FBI affidavit supporting the arrest of Alvarenga-Rodriguez.

When asked if the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services provided access to the database to ICE, DPSCS provided a statement to The Sun.

“Federal agencies do not have direct access to the Motor Vehicle Administration database, and the administration has taken steps to ensure that federal law enforcement access through third-party systems, such as the International Justice and Public Safety Network, also known as Nlets, complies with state and federal law. For months, the state has been working urgently to modernize outdated database systems. As this work takes place, the administration has instituted measures to prevent immigration authorities from accessing MVA data without a judicial warrant.”

Lam told The Sun that he believes ICE is accessing MVA data through a “loophole” in the DPSCS portal.

“I think individuals who have these (driver’s license restrictions) are at risk of being sniffed out of our MVA database by ICE, and are potentially detained and deported, perhaps improperly, because of the lag by the department in getting this properly locked down,” said Lam. His legislation has passed the House, and Lam hopes the Senate passes it before the session ends on April 13.

Last October, the Department of Homeland Security published a notice in the Federal Register that it wanted access to Nlets. During the previous year, ICE used Nlets to conduct about 900,000 searches for motor vehicle information, including driver’s license data, according to Stateline. In the Federal Register, DHS said it wanted to connect Nlets to its SAVE, or Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, program.

The Maryland Data Privacy Act prohibits state agencies from sharing personal information, including Maryland Motor Vehicles Administration records, for review with a federal agency for immigration enforcement, according to an MVA statement to The Sun. The MVA discontinued direct access to MVA’s system to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE in 2021, the statement said. Agencies seeking information from the MVA for immigration enforcement must present a valid judicial warrant and any access for the purpose of immigration enforcement without a valid judicial warrant would violate Maryland law, the statement said.

David Gray, professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Cary School of Law, said he saw no constitutional violation outlined in the FBI affidavit.

Searching the MVA driver’s license database doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures, Gray said. “A search for purposes of the Fourth Amendment either involves a physical intrusion into a constitutionally protected area, going into somebody’s home, going into their car, looking through their bags, and that certainly didn’t happen here. This is a database.”

But Cary J. Hansel, a Baltimore-based civil rights attorney, said the tactic means “a quarter-million people in Maryland have no constitutional rights, in the eyes of ICE. They do have constitutional rights, of course, and ICE is dead wrong to rely on these driver’s license restrictions for reasonable suspicion.”

ICE arrests conducted in Maryland or by the Baltimore field office, which covers Maryland, have ramped up in recent months, according to figures compiled by the Deportation Data Project. February marked the third straight month of more than 700 arrests, peaking with more than 830 in January, according to the project.

By contrast, over the last three full months of President Joe Biden’s administration in 2024, the monthly total never exceeded 200.

In the FBI affidavit supporting the arrest of Alvarenga-Rodriguez, FBI Agent Amy Ferron wrote that, according to an ICE officer, “observing an ‘AU’ restriction indicates the individual may not be legally in the U.S.” Therefore, an ICE officer conducted a traffic stop, she wrote.

While being questioned by an ICE officer, Alvarenga-Rodriguez told agents he had been living in the U.S. for 19 years.

“It was subsequently determined Alvarenga-Rodriguez was a citizen and national of El Salvador,” the affidavit reads. When an ICE officer told Alvarenga-Rodriguez to exit his Toyota Corolla, he shook his head “no” and tried to shift the car into drive, per the affidavit.

During a physical altercation with ICE agents, Alvarenga-Rodriguez caused a half-inch laceration on an agent’s nose and bit a second agent on his left forearm, according to the affidavit.

Federal prosecutors filed a criminal information last week against Alvarenga-Rodriquez in the U.S. District Court of Maryland, accusing him of a single count of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers against him. According to an FBI affidavit, when ICE agents asked Alvarenga-Rodriguez to step out of his car, he shook his head no, started the vehicle and tried to drive away. ICE officer ordered Alvarenga-Rodriguez to stop and “physically engaged” to prevent him from fleeing, according to the criminal complaint.

After the scuffle, one ICE officer had a half-inch long cut on the left side of their nose, and another had bite marks on his left forearm, the complaint states.

In March, a federal judge ordered Alvarenga-Rodriguez released on his own recognizance.

As of Thursday, Alvarenga-Rodriguez did not have a trial date scheduled.

(Steve Earley contributed to this report.)