Hundreds of Md. licenses and IDs for undocumented immigrants were illegally issued

WASHINGTON - An audit finds hundreds of Maryland licenses and IDs for undocumented immigrants have been illegally issued over the last few years.

Auditors say about 600 licenses were fraudulently-obtained. The findings were a part of an MVA investigation that was brought to light. It found two employees allegedly were involved in issuing some of these IDs.

The MVA says those two people have since been fired and now dealing with state and federal authorities.

While there are IDs that are meant for undocumented immigrants, these particular IDs are meant for undocumented immigrants to obtain while they are living in Maryland, as long as they have paid taxes to the state for two years.

"The counterfeit document in question, is a state Comptroller's letter. And that letter states that the individual who's an applicant for this non-compliant license has filed a state tax return the last two years, which is a requirement under state law," says Maryland legislative auditor Thomas Barnickel. "Well apparently, those letters were being altered, and so what we found is the same number was being used multiple times by applicants."

FOX 5 reached out to MVA, and their director said in a statement:

"To be clear, MDOT MVA discovered this issue and shared the problem and solution with state auditors. We take the issue of fraud very seriously and immediately took administrative action against the employees involved, canceled fraudulently issued driver's licenses and identification cards, and implemented new computer safeguards to stop an improper transaction from occurring in the future."