Our research is cited in a detailed report by Khari Johnson and Wendy Fry of CalMatters (syndicated statewide) on plans by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to upload information about all California driver’s licenses and state IDs to the SPEXS national ID database run by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).

• CalMatters: ‘A betrayal:’ California to share data on immigrant drivers nationally
• LA Times: California to share data on immigrant drivers nationally
• SF Gate: A Betrayal: California To Share Data On Immigrant Drivers Nationally
• Conexión Migrante: La traición, California se prepara para compartir información de los conductores migrantes

If you’re looking for background, here are some of our previous reports on this issue:

• DMV wants to upload California drivers license data to the national REAL-ID database
• Testimony of the Identity Project to the California Senate Budget Committee
• How the REAL-ID Act is creating a national ID database
• AAMVA’s attempt to suppress reporting on SPEXS
• FAQ: The REAL-ID Act of 2005

The Governor and the DMV are proposing that the state capitulate preemptively to lawless threats by Federal authorities to harass and discriminate California residents when they travel by air. That’s a choice not to challenge those lawless Federal threats, as the state has challenged many other recent lawless Federal threats. That’s also a choice to prioritize the convenience of air travelers over the protection of immigrant Californians. If they want to make those choices, they need to make them openly and be willing to defend them.

The upload to SPEXS of data about all California licenses and IDs would break the promises made by the state and the DMV that information in driver’s license records wouldn’t be made available for immigration enforcement or other unrelated purposes. Those promises  are codified in current California law, which would prohibit the planned upload to SPEXS.

AAMVA as a private entity requires (although neither Federal nor sate law requires) that if a state chooses to upload information about its residents to SPEXS, it must include either the last five digits of the Social Secuirty Number for each license holder, or “99999” as a placeholder for each license holder without an SSN. This makes licenses issued pursuant to immigrants and other individuals without SSNs, pursuant to California AB-60 and similar laws in other states, immediately identifiable in the SPEXS database.

As we pointed out in our interview with CalMatters, the Governor’s office and the DMV must have known that once data about California licenses and IDs is uploaded to SPEXS, immigration or other law enforcement agencies will be able to obtain that data from AAMVA. A warrant or subpoena could contain a gag order prohibiting AAMVA from telling California or the impacted individuals that their data has been handed over by AAMVA.

California authorities cannot truthfully promise that AAMVA will be allowed to notify them of a demand for SPEXS data, or that they will even have an opportunity to contest sucha  demand. Once it’s  uploaded to AAMVA — a private entity — it’s out of the state’s control.

There’s no way to know whether AAMVA has already been required to secretly hand over any or all of the data already uploaded to SPEXS by other states.

The Governor’s proposed budget contains funding for the upload and is accompanied by a  “budget trailer bill” that would amend state law to allow the upload.

Our previous report mentions a separate bill, AB-2156, which had been introduced on this subject. AB-2156  was repurposed by amending it to substitute unrelated legislation for a new and unrelated purpose. This is a procedural tactic used in the California legislature to more rapidly advance an urgent measure for a new purpose after the deadlines for introducing new bills. The result is that AB-2156 won’t serve the original purpose.

The only bills that will be considered will be the budget bill (funding the SPEXS upload) and a “budget trailer” bill containing legislative changes needed to allow the projects funded in the budget, including amending state law — which in its current form would prohibit the SPEXS upload — to allow the SPEXS upload. This policy change will be bundled into the budget trailer bill, rather than given full and separate consideration.