DHS Official Responds to ACLU Lawsuit: ‘Frivolous and False’

“Another day, another frivolous and false allegation from the ACLU,” said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the DHS said in a statement. “Here are the facts: the illegal alien feeding the ACLU this nonsense is a MURDERER. ICE doesn’t need the help of the Nevada DMV to pull license plate information, it’s already available to the agency.”

McLaughlin’s remarks follow the ACLU of Nevada filing a lawsuit seeking public records from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles in relation to the communications between the DMV and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

ACLU Executive Director Athar Haseebullah (he, him, his) replied that McLaughlin’s statement was “insane, bazaar, and false.”

As reported by The California Globe, last week the ACLU of Nevada filed a lawsuit against the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for repeatedly refusing to release documents detailing its communications with ICE.

The ACLU of Nevada alleges that over a six-month period,  a series of public records requests seeking policies and communications related to immigration enforcement were initially stonewalled. With the help of Nevada’s Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford, the DMV released “heavily-redacted records” and what appears to be the existence of encrypted Signal communication between DMV staff and ICE agents.

In a press conference announcing the lawsuit, Haseebullah warned, “The Nevada DMV maintains one of the largest repositories of information statewide. After stonewalling our attempts for transparency in communication between the DMV and ICE, the records we’ve obtained, even while heavily redacted, suggest significant and problematic communication between the DMV and ICE. References to a Signal group between employees of the Nevada DMV and ICE raises enormous alarms. Signal is an encrypted communications app that makes communication between parties nearly untraceable. Governor Lombardo must make all records between the Nevada DMV and ICE transparent to the public without redactions to best protect the privacy interests of Nevadans. Without transparency, there is no accountability, and without accountability, our communities remain at risk.”

Nevada is one of nineteen states that provides a Driver Authorization Card (DAC) to illegal aliens who cannot meet the proof of identity requirement to obtain a driver’s license or ID card. Illegal aliens may get DACs without showing a U.S. passport or birth certificate.