DMV lacks authority to help identify illegals

CARSON CITY -- The Department of Motor Vehicles cannot comply with a Bush administration request for information about and photos of Nevada drivers without a change in state law, officials said Friday.

DMV Director Ginny Lewis "doesn't have the statutory authority to volunteer the department's records" to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as the administration requested to aid in a crackdown on illegal immigration, said DMV spokesman Tom Jacobs.

The Bush administration asked states to voluntarily share driver's license photos and other records with federal homeland security officials for use in an employment verification system. The federal agency would use the information to help employers detect fraudulent licenses and identify undocumented immigrants seeking work.

"The DMV does not have authority to volunteer that information," Jacobs said. "The statutes would have to be changed."

The DMV has stored in its databases all photos of Nevada drivers who have secured licenses since the agency implemented a digital photography system in 2002. It will take until 2010 for photos of every Nevada driver to be included in the database. Driver's licenses expire every four years, but can be renewed for another four years without a new photo being taken.

Virtually "any police officer" in the country can obtain DMV photos and records through the National Crime Information Center computer system and other police databases, Jacobs said.

Local police agencies also share criminal records and information about wanted and missing persons with the FBI and other federal agencies.

But under the Bush administration request DMV information would be shared with employers to determine if their workers were non-citizens and have acquired phony licenses. That is not a legally permitted use, Jacobs said.

American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada lawyer Allen Lichtenstein said he feared the Bush administration request would cause undocumented residents to avoid contact with government.

"Using local government and police to enforce immigration laws has a negative effect," he said. "It will make people afraid to have contact with local government in terms of health, safety and welfare."

Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, said the Bush administration's request would cause employers to shy away from hiring Hispanic workers, even those who are citizens, out of fear of incurring fines if some of the workers are undocumented.

"This will encourage employers to discriminate against prospective workers who have ethnic surnames and not because they are racist," Peck said. "Why would they expose themselves to the liability? They would figure they were better off not hiring Hispanics, and hire Anglos."