Roadside Assist: Washington State’s Continued Sharing of Drivers’ Information with Federal Immigration Enforcement

  • Date: 2026
Report cover with a stylized collage of a CBP agent looking at a van, holding a phone with the Nlets logo on it. Phone is connected by lines to a web of other circles with other logos. Roadside Assist: Washington State’s Continued Sharing of Drivers’ Information with Federal Immigration Enforcement

This report reveals pathways through which Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) allows access to drivers’ data by federal immigration enforcement agencies, through a national data-sharing system called Nlets. In Washington state, Nlets is administered by the Washington State Patrol’s ACCESS system. UWCHR researchers have confirmed that DOL data was queried in at least nine immigration enforcement actions (seven of these confirmed as involving civil immigration enforcement) by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in late 2025. While state authorities claimed to have curtailed ICE ERO’s access to DOL data via ACCESS in November 2025, CBP use of the system continues uninterrupted. Of the nine confirmed cases, eight involved CBP queries of the ACCESS/Nlets system.

Read More about Roadside Assist: Washington State’s Continued Sharing of Drivers’ Information with Federal Immigration Enforcement here