ICE Sub-Agency Accessed Puerto Rico Transportation Database, Court Records Show

SAN JUAN — Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sub-agency, has access to the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation’s DAVID+ system, which contains driver’s licenses, addresses, basic physical information, and photographs, according to a court document reviewed by The Latino Newsletter.

“HSI agents conducted a search of motor vehicle records databases through the Puerto Rico ‘Departamento de Transportación y Obras Públicas, (DTOP) DAVID+ system,” reads the affidavit, which was signed in support of the arrest of a Puerto Rican man indicted for alleged sexual coercion of a minor and possessing child sexual exploitation material. When HSI searched the DAVID+ (referred to as “David Plus”) database for the man’s name, it returned his license, telephone number, registered vehicle, physical information, and photograph.

The Latino Newsletter previously reported that HSI in Puerto Rico accessed vehicle registration data through a DTOP database for immigration enforcement. 

At the time of reporting, court documents showed that Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), another ICE sub-agency, conducted a record check on a vehicle license plate that returned the name of a female resident at the house of an immigrant they were surveilling. Newly submitted court records claim the immigrant’s partner, who lived with him, is Puerto Rican and a U.S. citizen.

Although it is unclear whether this record search was conducted through DAVID+, it does show that HSI has access to a Puerto Rican person’s vehicle registration data and has used it while conducting immigration enforcement. 

DAVID+, also known as the Driver and Vehicle Information Database, is the system that manages DTOP’s digital platforms and houses data submitted to their driver services center, ranging from a person’s address to all the vehicles registered under their name. 

It is unclear whether HSI has direct access to DAVID+ or any other DTOP databases, or whether they need to ask DTOP to perform the database lookups for them. The court document does not mention an intermediary service or process. 

HSI acknowledged our request for comment but told The Latino Newsletter to submit a FOIA request. DTOP acknowledged the request but did not respond by press time. 

HSI and ERO have used record checks on a database with Puerto Rico license and vehicle registration data for immigration enforcement at least nine times. It is unclear whether these searches were conducted through DAVID+ or using data of immigrants who received provisional licenses.

Vehicle registration data and other information about license holders are particularly important to federal immigration authorities because they allow them to monitor vehicles and the people who own or drive them. If it also gives federal immigration enforcement access to a person’s basic physical description, photos, and their addresses, it makes immigrants easier targets. 

In October 2025, a Dominican man was detained while attempting to enter his vehicle in the Villa Palmera neighborhood of San Juan. DTOP record checks showed that he had “identified himself as a national and citizen of the Dominican Republic” and revealed his passport number, according to an affidavit. Meanwhile, another record check indicated he had received a Puerto Rico driver’s license. 

While HSI has historically focused mostly on investigative cases, the Trump administration has increasingly reassigned its agents to support immigration enforcement. In Puerto Rico, which had not had a strong history of immigration raids compared to the United States, HSI agents have been at the helm of Trump’s deportation campaign. Out of the nine documented cases where DTOP data was used to arrest an immigrant, HSI participated in all of them.

Last year, Democratic lawmakers revealed that states may be inadvertently sharing their drivers’ data with ICE through Nlets, a nonprofit that shares data between 18,000 federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies. However, ICE cannot use Nlets to obtain a record of everyone who has a noncitizen license, according to the National Immigration Law Center. A recent report noted that five states have cut off ICE’s access to their driver's data through Nlets.

SIJC-PR, the Puerto Rico Justice Department’s digital platform that shares data between state agencies, such as DTOP, communicates with Nlets, according to their website. 

In early 2025, DTOP provided HSI with data on more than 6,000 undocumented immigrants who have provisional driver’s licenses under a 2013 law, after receiving an administrative subpoena, per both agencies. The ACLU-PR sued DTOP for not responding to a records request for the administrative subpoena. Although the Court of Appeals determined that the alleged subpoena and other requested information should be public, DTOP has not provided the data to ACLU-PR. 

“Regardless of the form or method used — including the DAVID+ system — it is worth remembering that when Law 97 of 2013 was enacted to give immigrants access to a driver's license, they were promised in the law itself that the confidentiality of immigration information in the records would be protected. However, what the country has seen, particularly since January 2025, is that such information held by the DTOP is being used by federal agencies for immigration purposes,” David Cordero Mercado, communications director for ACLU-PR, said in a written statement. 

The Latino Newsletter has previously reported on how municipal police officers have seen immigrants' provisional licenses and then called federal immigration authorities on drivers. 

In one instance, the Isabela Municipal Police detained and transported immigrants to their police station until CBP arrived, according to court records. In the second, court documents claim, a Carolina Municipal Police officer called CBP to detain an immigrant he had summoned to their police station.

Carlos Berríos Polanco is a journalist from Puerto Rico who covers climate, conflict, and their intersection. He is also the Deputy Editor of The Latino Newsletter’s San Juan Bureau.

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Nuria Net edited this edition of The Latino Newsletter. Julio Ricardo Varela published it.

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