Documents: Immigrants’ ID card info was fed to Customs
MONTPELIER, Vt. — The Vermont motor vehicle department gave federal officials information on immigrants living in the country illegally, documents show, giving life to longstanding fears that programs providing such immigrants with documentation could be used against them.
Copies of emails requested and recently obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union show that investigators with the state Department of Motor Vehicles co-ordinated with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials last year to identify noncitizens.
Many of the emails show department investigators sent information to ICE on migrants they suspect gave false information on their applications for driver identification cards. The state’s card program was created in 2013 to provide immigrants living in the country illegally with a way to drive.
The ACLU asked for the records to ensure the motor vehicle department was complying with a settlement agreement reached last year in a discrimination case brought by a Jordanian man. The man had applied for a driver ID card, and state officials forwarded his information to federal immigration officials, who started deportation proceedings. He was briefly jailed and released after posting bail; he was ultimately not deported.