![\"Sign](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CalMatters-DMV-LV_CM_02.jpg\" "\\"Sign")
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Sign to the Department of Motor Vehicles in the parking lot in central Fresno on Dec. 13, 2022. Photo by Larry Valenzuela for CalMatters<\/p>\n
Larry Valenzuela<\/p>\n
CalMatters<\/p>\n
This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters<\/p>\n The California Legislature wants to stall plans to share information about California drivers \u2014 including more than 1 million immigrant license holders who lack federal authorization<\/a> to live in the U.S. \u2014 with a little-known nonprofit agency made up of motor vehicle administrators across the nation.<\/p>\n The Assembly and Senate\u2019s budget agreement, released Thursday night, withholds $55 million in funding for the California Department of Motor Vehicles to link to a database that would begin fulfilling requests for information from other states about California drivers early next year.<\/p>\n The governor\u2019s office and DMV want to share that information with the State-to-State system and SPEX platform, which lets states check for duplicate licenses and is operated by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.<\/p>\n Because the system records the last five digits of a driver\u2019s Social Security number and uses a placeholder such as \u201c99999\u201d for people without one, opponents of the plan warned it could easily flag drivers who lack a Social Security number.<\/p>\n Immigrant advocates worry the upload could leave undocumented Californians vulnerable to deportation if the information goes to Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Californians are eligible to obtain a standard driver\u2019s license regardless of their immigration status under a 2014 law known as Assembly Bill 60<\/a>.<\/p>\n State officials say the data sharing is needed to comply with the Real ID Act of 2005, which sets requirements for accepting state identification at federal facilities such as airports.<\/p>\n In response to the Legislature\u2019s budget proposal, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson encouraged people who lack federal authorization to live in the U.S. to leave the country.<\/p>\n The Senate released its budget proposal Tuesday evening, and the funding for the DMV\u2019s State-to-State Verification program was not included<\/a>. The Legislature must adopt a budget by June 15 but has until June 30 to negotiate budget details with the governor.<\/p>\n Leaving out the $55 million from the state budget would not completely kill the DMV\u2019s plan, advocates said. Budget negotiations between the two houses and Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s office could continue. Lawmakers could still revive the appropriation through follow-up budget legislation or a separate budget bill.<\/p>\n But it could mean the DMV is unlikely to receive the funding by July 1, the date it had targeted to begin sharing the data, according to Jessie Schmitte, a state policy manager with Alliance San Diego, a community-based human rights organization, which has been tracking the proposal. Nearly 200 organizations signed on to a letter<\/a> by the coalition in opposition to the DMV data sharing plan. The data sharing plan also attracted protestors<\/a> to a San Francisco branch of the DMV earlier this month.<\/p>\n Some advocates credited CalMatters with bringing the issue to light in a news story earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you probably know, a lot of organizations weren\u2019t aware of these conversations until, thankfully, the CalMatters article<\/a> came out and brought air into this conversation for everybody who has not had a seat at the table,\u201d said Schmitte. \u201cIf you were really serious about protecting Californians and doubling down on privacy concerns, you wouldn\u2019t be running away from these conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n The DMV needs more than funding to carry out the plan. State law prohibits the DMV from sharing a Social Security number obtained through the licensing process for most purposes, which means the state needs additional legislation before providing information to the national nonprofit, a step the DMV\u2019s own budget request notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n The state wants to provide the information to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators<\/a>, a nonprofit organization whose governing board is made up of DMV officials from across the country. It would be used to help other states ensure that people don\u2019t simultaneously hold identification documents elsewhere. Advocates worry local officials in those states might pass to the federal government information from the association database on apparent unauthorized immigrants. The association has said its database can\u2019t be searched in bulk or without specific information like name and date of birth.<\/p>\n A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said discussions about the California DMV funding are ongoing. Staff for two other lawmakers did not respond to a request for information about negotiations.<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s office referred questions to the Department of Finance. Spokesperson H.D. Palmer said \u201cdiscussions have been underway and are continuing.\u201d<\/p>\n At this late hour, it seems unlikely a compromise could be reached by the deadline the DMV gave, said Andrea Guerrero, the founding executive director of Alliance San Diego.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine what kind of change could be made while we\u2019re standing at the end of a plank,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ed Hasbrouck with civil liberties group The Identity Project attended protests against the data sharing plan at DMV offices in San Francisco earlier this month and joined a call with the governor\u2019s office and DMV about the data sharing plan in April.<\/p>\n He\u2019s pleased lawmakers decided to put off the funding for now, but said going forward the most important thing for the public and legislators to understand is that once data about California drivers enters a multi-state database, guardrails are no longer possible, because the plan requires sharing data about all license holders.<\/p>\n Ultimately, he said, the state is going to have to make a choice: Either to overturn the promises made in AB 60 and place immigrant and other Californians at risk, or decide not to comply with the Real ID Act and defend those Californians.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been postponed but that\u2019s a choice the state is going to have to make. It can\u2019t just avoid it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n CalMatters reporter Yue Stella Yu contributed to this story.<\/p>\n