By Dana Gentry, Nevada Current
This piece was originally published in the Nevada Current
(Photo: Hugh Jackson/Nevada Current)
The ACLU of Nevada is suing the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles for allegedly failing to provide records in accordance with state law, including correspondence with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The suit alleges that heavily redacted records obtained by the ACLU, after significant delays, include correspondence between DMV and ICE, with references to chats on Signal, an encrypted communication app known to be used by federal officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Unfortunately, the reality is that when encrypted applications like Signal are used, it makes it very difficult for anybody in the public to know what’s occurred,” ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Athar Haseebullah said at a news conference Friday. He added the organization has no proof that Signal chats between DMV officials and ICE occurred.
—“Unfortunately, the reality is that when encrypted applications like Signal are used, it makes it very difficult for anybody in the public to know what’s occurred."
Athar Haseebullah
Executive Director
ACLU of Nevada
The ACLU wants to know if DMV staff are secretly communicating with immigration authorities, and the organization is seeking a court order requiring the DMV to turn over the documents, which it alleges contain redactions beyond those allowed under state law.
The records, which the ACLU had been trying to obtain since February of this year, “don’t paint a complete picture, but those records established, incredibly, that, at best, there was suspicious communications that existed between the DMV and between ICE,” Haseebullah said at a Friday morning news conference.
Nevada law, Haseebullah noted, “requires the preservation of public records, and the public has a right to know how state agencies are operating – the same state agencies they fund, especially when it comes to data sharing and cooperation between Nevada agencies and immigration enforcement.”
The “consistent communication” between DMV and ICE makes no reference to subpoenas or warrants, Haseebullah said.
An April email response from DMV to the ACLU says the organization’s request for ICE communications “is not considered public information and cannot be released, any communication we have to ICE is only for investigations purposes.”
The DMV did not identify what information is for investigation purposes, the suit says.
Nevada allows individuals who lack the identification needed to obtain a driver’s license to apply for a driver’s authorization card through the DMV. The law prohibits the DMV from releasing data for any purpose relating to the enforcement of immigration laws.
“Let me be clear. If you cannot operate in transparency, you’re not protecting the people,” Assemblywoman Cecelia Gonzalez, chair of the Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus, said at the news conference. “You are hiding from the people that you so say you represent.”
The ACLU is asking the state to conduct an independent investigation “and full disclosure by the governor of any and all existences of cooperation between ICE and the DMV.”
Gov. Joe Lombardo, who has instructed Nevada’s National Guard to cooperate with ICE, did not respond to the Current’s inquiry asking whether he’s requested other agencies, including the DMV, to do the same.
The ACLU’s writ makes three claims – that the DMV failed to respond to a record request; that the DMV failed to cite the proper legal authority that warrants withholding the record; and that the agency cited inapplicable reasons the documents were not shared.
The organization is also seeking civil penalties for what it calls the DMV’s ongoing abuse of the Nevada Public Records Act.
