--- title: "California Will Share Driver's-License Data With a National System, Alarming Immigrant Advocates" description: "A provision in California's new state budget authorizes the DMV to share driver's-license records — including partial Social Security numbers — with national motor-vehicle databases, a step the state calls a federal compliance requirement but that immigrant-rights groups warn could expose more than a million undocumented license holders." category: "Los Angeles" category_url: https://herald.la/category/los-angeles author: "Brandon Cole" published: 2026-06-30T18:48:00.000Z updated: 2026-06-30T18:48:00.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/california-will-share-drivers-license-data-with-a-national-system-alarming-immig tags: ["immigration", "DMV", "privacy", "REAL ID", "California", "AB 60"] --- # California Will Share Driver's-License Data With a National System, Alarming Immigrant Advocates A provision in California's new state budget authorizes the DMV to share driver's-license records — including partial Social Security numbers — with national motor-vehicle databases, a step the state calls a federal compliance requirement but that immigrant-rights groups warn could expose more than a million undocumented license holders. A line in California's budget has set off a fight over whether the state's promise of safety to undocumented drivers can survive contact with a national database. ## What the state is doing The budget signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to share license and identification records with two national systems run by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), [LAist reported](https://laist.com/news/politics/california-driver-license-data-sharing). The shared data includes license records and the last five digits of a holder's Social Security number; people without a Social Security number — a category that includes undocumented residents — are entered with a placeholder code. State officials say participation is required to comply with the federal REAL ID Act, and that refusing could lead the Department of Homeland Security to stop accepting California IDs at airport checkpoints, [CalMatters reported](https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/06/driver-license-sharing/). ## Why advocates are alarmed Since 2015, California has issued driver's licenses to residents who cannot prove lawful presence under a 2013 law known as AB 60; those licenses carry a distinct marking, and more than a million immigrants hold them, per LAist. Immigrant-rights groups — including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, ACLU California Action and the California Immigrant Policy Center — fear that entering those records into national databases could, in the current federal enforcement climate, help authorities identify undocumented residents. Ed Hasbrouck of the Identity Project warned that contractual "guardrails will not prevent federal or other state law enforcement from obtaining an order requiring" disclosure of data, including in bulk, per CalMatters. AB 60 bars use of the license itself as a basis for immigration detention under state law — but that protection does not bind federal agencies or a court order directed at a database operator. ## What the state says California's Department of Finance defended the arrangement, saying "the established safeguards limit the information shared to the minimum necessary," per CalMatters, and officials stressed the AAMVA system is designed to be queried one record at a time, with bulk searches prohibited under the agreement. The budget and a companion measure add oversight: authority for the attorney general to sue over violations, annual DMV public reporting, a monitoring plan due in 2027, and a state audit beginning in 2030. ## What comes next The practical effect will turn on how the agreement is implemented and whether federal agencies seek records through legal processes that bypass the one-at-a-time limit. Advocates said they were disappointed Social Security data would still be shared even as they acknowledged the new reporting requirements, and signaled they will press for stronger protections before the monitoring framework takes full effect. The 2030 audit timeline means a formal accounting of whether the safeguards work will not arrive for years — a gap critics say leaves vulnerable license holders exposed in the meantime. ## Sources - [California is set to share driver's-license data despite fears it could be used for immigration enforcement](https://laist.com/news/politics/california-driver-license-data-sharing) - [California driver-license data sharing](https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/06/driver-license-sharing/)