By Michael Lyle, Nevada Current
This piece was originally published in the Nevada Current.
The ACLU of Nevada asked a judge on Wednesday to order the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles to release more than 100 documents pertaining to the agency’s communication with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The motion filed with the First Judicial District Court is the latest attempt by the organization to obtain records it says the DMV is withholding that show the extent the department communicates with federal immigration officials.
The DMV disclosed that it had unlawfully withheld 110 documents in a court filing March 3. It has only handed over seven of those records, the ACLU said.
The agency has identified more than “100 responsive documents” and failing to hand them over is a “textbook example of the government doing everything it can to evade accountability,” Athar Haseebullah, the executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, said in a statement Wednesday.
“At this point, it’s clear that the DMV has no interest in complying with Nevada law and won’t do so of its own accord,” Haseebullah said. “Oddly, I can’t truly determine whether the agency is intentionally misleading the public or is so grossly incompetent that it can’t even get its own story straight, but the reality is that either outcome is beyond problematic for Nevadans, and the agency’s violations of the law are on plain display.
The ACLU of Nevada, which has been working to figure out the extent the DMV cooperates with federal immigration officials, sued the agency in August alleging that DMV heavily redacted, and delayed, records requested by the organization.
When the case was heard Feb. 6, Carson City District Judge Kristin Luis told the DMV it had five days to turn over public records and department policies requested as part of the lawsuit.
The Nevada Attorney General’s office, which represents the DMV, initially argued that the agency doesn’t chat with federal immigration officials via Signal, an encrypted messaging platform.
The AG’s office later admitted that was false adding they the statement was “believed to be accurate at the time they were made” at the Feb. 6 hearing.
The AG’s office declined to comment on the latest motion filed by the ACLU.
The ACLU said the ongoing delay and admission of providing inaccurate information during the court hearing raises serious questions about that agency’s transparency.
“The court should allow us the opportunity to question DMV officials under oath and get to the bottom of this,” Haseebullah said. “There should be nothing for those officials to be concerned about if everyone at the DMV operated transparently.”
