Federal immigration agents continue to obtain Maryland driver information to make arrests despite state lawmakers’ efforts to curtail access, according to a new report.

Researchers at [the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights](https://jsis.washington.edu/humanrights/2026/10/13/dmv-to-dhs-pipeline/ "https://jsis.washington.edu/humanrights/2026/10/13/dmv-to-dhs-pipeline/") found that laws in four states, including Maryland, intended to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection from accessing state motor vehicle data “may not be as airtight as they appear.”

Maryland has some of the strongest such laws in the nation, including a new data privacy law that took effect in July. But the state is stumbling to implement it effectively, said Angelina Godoy, the report’s author.

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In 2021, local immigrant advocates hailed the passage of the Driver Privacy Act, which prohibited Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Administration from directly sharing driver’s license or vehicle registration information with immigration agents.

However, ICE continued to access that information through a back channel called the International Justice and Public Safety Network, an [independent nonprofit organization](https://nlets.org/resources "https://nlets.org/resources") that facilitates information sharing across law enforcement agencies. All 50 states participate in the system, and ICE is one of several federal agencies with membership.

In practice, the system’s users have an agency identifier code, which functions like a username, to submit queries for specific information. The query — like an ICE agent requesting the name associated with a license plate number — pings a corresponding state system that houses a variety of data, like motor vehicle records and individuals’ criminal histories. Godoy’s report indicates that this is where the leaks are.

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The MVA has already blocked over 250,000 attempts to access its records by federal agents conducting immigration enforcement, McCullough wrote. Varonis wrote in an email that both the correctional services department and the MVA are working to block system usernames associated with immigration enforcement agencies.

Godoy, however, said that immigration agents have access to tens of thousands of different usernames for the system. And evidence across various states suggests that shutting them down in a “whack-a-mole” approach isn’t entirely effective.

The MVA is also requiring all third parties who purchase its data to sign privacy agreements that prohibit its disclosure for immigration enforcement, McCullough wrote. Still, data brokers like LexisNexis are private organizations, and Godoy’s team has been unable to access and review any evidence regarding ICE purchasing MVA data through them.

Federal agents continue to get driver information “in precisely the ways these laws seek to prohibit,” the University of Washington report states.

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Godoy’s team combed through federal court records in which immigration agents detail how they obtained and relied on MVA data to make arrests. The report includes cases like that of [Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins](https://www.thebanner.com/community/criminal-justice/ice-shooting-glen-burnie-maryland-6HYOE2LFJ5G6JIU3NFWLZOTCOM/ "https://www.thebanner.com/community/criminal-justice/ice-shooting-glen-burnie-maryland-6HYOE2LFJ5G6JIU3NFWLZOTCOM/"), whom ICE accused of overstaying his visa. Federal agents shot him during a Christmas Eve arrest that began with running his license plate in a parking lot.

But it also includes cases of arrests made after July 1, when the new Data Privacy Act took effect, adding to a growing body of evidence suggesting state records continue to play a role in ICE activity.

Through public records requests, Godoy’s team obtained reports of MVA data queries made on vehicles involved in ICE traffic stops during the first two weeks of July. In an interview, Godoy also pointed to an August arrest in Laurel in which an ICE agent later testified in court to having queried law enforcement databases about a license plate to identify the registered owner.