A federal judge threw a wrench in the Department of Homeland Security’s plans to scour the nation’s truck drivers for illegal immigrants, ruling Tuesday that DHS’ subpoena seeking information from states’ driver’s license databases was improper.
Judge Anthony Trenga, a George W. Bush pick for the court in Virginia, said not only did DHS lack the authority to get at the data, but releasing it to the department would violate several federal privacy laws.
The database is maintained by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators under an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration. But by longstanding agreement, the data is not controlled by the feds, the judge said.
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Access is highly protected, and he said DHS is not one of the agencies authorized to probe the data.
He also said the subpoena seemed to be a way to pressure the association to share the data with the Transportation Department, which had already requested it.
Judge Trenga said that subterfuge was “an improper purpose.”
In a separate ruling over the summer he had blocked the Transportation Department’s demand for the data.
In Tuesday’s ruling, he said DHS’s request was also too broad.
“Here, the administrative subpoena, directing AAMVA to produce the personal identifying information of 17 million individuals, represents a textbook example of an improper ‘John Doe’ subpoena with no clear purpose or need other than to place a massive amount of personal identifying information directly into an unauthorized administrative agency,” Judge Trenga wrote.
The Trump administration has complained about foreign nationals with less-than-full legal status winning commercial driver’s licenses from states.
The feds say those “non-domiciled” drivers can lack the English skills necessary to safely operate a truck on American roads.
A series of high-profile fatal accidents involving non-domiciled commercial drivers has elevated the issue.
The administration withheld some federal money from California after finding that the state hadn’t revoked licenses of some non-domiciled drivers.
California eventually revoked 13,000 of the licenses.
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