Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) continues “roadside assists” to ICE/CBP immigration investigations. In this research update to the January 8, 2026, “Roadside Assist” report, UWCHR highlights new cases and analysis of DOL data.
New cases: UWCHR’s January 2026 report, “Roadside Assist,” documented 9 cases in which ICE or CBP queried DOL data prior to conducting immigration arrests on Washington roads, at least 7 of which were acts of civil, not criminal, immigration enforcement. Since then, UWCHR researchers have verified 6 additional cases, at least two of which are confirmed to have been civil immigration arrests.
CBP continues to access Nlets: In November 2025, state officials cut off ICE ERO’s access to this source of DOL data. In January 2026, officials claimed to have cut off ICE HSI’s access. What does the data show? DOL’s own data confirms that in December, ICE ERO performed no queries of DOL data. Yet the vast majority of DOL database queries are performed by CBP, as seen in DOL’s data and the arrests confirmed by UWCHR researchers. The state has not taken action to cut off CBP, which means Washington drivers’ data remains vulnerable.
New data obtained from DOL reveal that in the last year CBP made the vast majority of queries of WA DOL data. The data confirm that ICE ERO queries stopped in mid November, but queries by ICE HSI and CBP continued through the end of 2025.