Immigrant rights groups scored a significant legislative victory this week when California's Assembly and Senate jointly stripped $55 million earmarked for a DMV data-connectivity project from a combined budget blueprint released Thursday — a move advocates say protects more than a million undocumented state residents from potential exposure to federal immigration authorities, according to CalMatters.
At issue is a plan backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration to plug California's Department of Motor Vehicles into two interstate driver-record networks — State-to-State and SPEX — both operated by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, a nonprofit whose governing board is composed of DMV officials from across the country. The administration had requested the funds to allow other states to query California driving records as soon as next year.
Thursday's joint proposal formalized what the Senate had already telegraphed two days earlier, when it circulated a standalone spending draft that likewise left out the State-to-State Verification appropriation.
The heart of advocates' concern lies in the specific data fields the shared system would expose. Each record contains the final five digits of a Social Security number; where no such number exists, a placeholder — typically "99999" — is substituted. Critics argue that flag would serve as a de facto marker identifying undocumented license holders to anyone with access, potentially including Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, responding after the budget proposal became public, called on people without legal status to leave the United States.
California has permitted residents to obtain standard driver's licenses regardless of immigration status since 2015, a policy rooted in Assembly Bill 60, which was signed into law in 2013. Advocacy organizations have warned that connecting those records to the interstate networks could expose more than one million undocumented Californians. State officials, for their part, have characterized the interstate link as a mandate under the federal Real ID Act of 2005, which governs identification standards for airports and certain federal facilities.
Nearly 200 organizations have signed a joint letter opposing the arrangement, and demonstrators rallied outside a San Francisco DMV office earlier this month. The project also faces legal complications: existing state law prohibits the DMV from sharing Social Security numbers gathered during the licensing process for most purposes, meaning the Legislature would need to pass additional legislation before any transfer to the national nonprofit could legally occur — a wrinkle the DMV's own budget request acknowledged.
Removing the funding does not permanently bury the initiative. A policy manager at Alliance San Diego, an advocacy group monitoring the situation, noted that talks between lawmakers and the Newsom administration are ongoing and that the appropriation could be revived through a separate budget vehicle later in the session. What the cut almost certainly accomplishes is delaying any data transfers past July 1 — the DMV's own target launch date.
The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators has maintained that its systems cannot be searched in bulk and require specific identifying details about an individual. Advocates remain skeptical, warning that officials in other states could pass along information about apparent undocumented drivers to federal agencies. Some activists also noted that many organizations were unaware the data-sharing talks were even happening until a CalMatters investigation earlier this year brought them to light.
Lawmakers are bound by a constitutional deadline of June 15 to approve a budget, with a final window running to June 30 to reach agreement with the governor — the same date by which broader fiscal negotiations are expected to wrap up.
Informational content only, not legal advice. Consult a licensed immigration attorney.