Georgia driver's license office is sharing information with ICE, records show

https://news.yahoo.com/georgia-drive...145800649.html

Georgia’s Department of Driver’s Services has shared information, including facial recognition searches, about the state’s residents with immigration authorities, according to data from an open records request.

Between September 2017 and last June, the department processed more than 250 requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies “to gather and share information on hundreds of immigrants living in Georgia,” advocacy groups said Wednesday.

The Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, Project South and Innovation Law Lab said based on the data they received it appeared the department fulfilled ICE’s requests “without any supporting evidence for the request.”

“I think this is alarming that the Department of Driver’s Services does not even require any type of proof, any type of administrative warrant, any type of judicial warrant or detainer before handing over significant information like where people live and license pictures,” Priyanka Bhatt, a staff attorney of Project South, said.

“It’s also alarming that Georgia law is so broad in allowing this to happen,” Bhatt said. “Law enforcement or ICE doesn’t even need to have an actual valid reason to obtain this information, they need an alleged belief that there might be unlawful activity happening and that is such a horribly low bar.”

ICE has been sued over allegations it has not turned over records on data collection, including facial recognition searches, and the agency said it cannot comment on pending litigation.

But the agency said it "does not routinely uses facial recognition technology for civil immigration enforcement."

"ICE’s use of facial recognition technology is primarily used by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents investigating child exploitation, human trafficking and other cases that HSI special agents investigate," the agency said. "HSI’s work to combat online child sexual exploitation and human trafficking has been widely recognized by law enforcement agencies around the world, and facial recognition technology is critical to identifying the perpetrators of these crimes.”

“There’s been a lot more outrage from legislators and officials about how broad ICE is using tapping into the databases without the knowledge of the general public, without any restriction,” Huynh said.

Prado said with some states discussing expanding driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, there should be “reform efforts to ensure people’s privacies are protected.”

“This is something we would want folks to be aware of," he said.

South is racist

Maryland started doing the same.