Action Needed to Protect Immigrants in Washington
Reports from the University of Washington Center for Human Rights in January indicate that while some progress was made with ICE, Customs and Border Protection retains extensive access to Washingtonians' private data via systems like Nlets and ACCESS, leading to multiple civil immigration arrests.
Karen Crowley, president, League of Women Voters of Washington and Barbara Tengtio, president of LWSKC, co-signed and sent a letter to the governor asking him to take action in March. He has yet to respond.
The Unite & Rise Committee has been working on immigration and its members are very concerned that this practice of continuing to share Department of Licensing information is putting residents at risk. The UWCHR has documented this is continuing through FOIA requests filed since the report was published. We are asking members to write to the governor and his policy advisor as individuals. Governor Ferguson is the primary decision-maker, and Grace Huang is his senior policy advisor for civil rights and human services. By sending a letter to Ferguson and emailing Huang, you are hitting the administration from two angles: the broad public pressure and the direct, technical policy channel.
Draft letter:
"The Honorable Bob Ferguson
Governor, State of Washington
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002
Subject: Urgent Action Required: Ending CBP Access to Washington State DOL Data via Nlets and ACCESS
Dear Governor Ferguson,
I am writing to ask that you prevent the sharing of driver’s license information with federal agencies for the purpose of immigration enforcement.
In January, a report, Roadside Assist: Washington State’s Continued Sharing of Drivers’ Information with Federal Immigration Enforcement from the UW Center for Human Rights confirmed that across our state, federal immigration agents are using drivers’ private data (i.e., checking license plate numbers in the Washington Department of Licensing [DOL] database), to make immigration arrests on our streets and highways.
Many of these arrests are warrantless, many are violent, and many bear the hallmarks of racial profiling. State law prohibits these practices and specifically bars the DOL from sharing data with federal agents for purposes of civil immigration enforcement. Data gathered through FOIA requests show this continues to happen.
We ask that you act to prevent the harm the DOL is causing our communities. We ask that Washington State stop sharing data with federal enforcement agencies. You have the power to block all ACCESS/International Justice and Public Safety Network searches of DOL data from Originating Agency Identifiers associated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement including Homeland Security Investigations, Enforcement and Removal Operations and Custom and Border Patrol.
We also ask that you commit to transparency about data-sharing by state agencies. There is a documented history of the DOL sharing immigrants’ data with federal agencies that use it for civil enforcement. This ongoing problem needs to be solved now.
Please act to protect immigrants.
Sincerely,
Your name
Your city
Roadside Assist: Washington State’s Continued Sharing of Drivers’ Information with Federal Immigration Enforcement - Center for Human Rights
Cc: Grace Huang Grace.Huang@gov.wa.gov"