23,000 US driver's licenses, license plates stored in Juárez

By Marisela Ortega Lozano / El Paso Times
Posted: 04/06/2011 12:10:59 PM MDT

Juárez authorities seized more than 23,000 driver's licenses and license plates, mostly issued in Texas and New Mexico, in 2010 for traffic violations, the Juárez comptroller said in a press release.

They belong to U.S. drivers cited in Juárez who have yet to pay their fines and retrieve their documents, Juárez authorities said.

Now, Juárez officials will meet with their counterparts in El Paso April 22 to address the issue to create a shared database, a spokesperson said.

Normally, when a driver is cited for a traffic violation in Juárez, traffic officers seize his or her driver's license or license plate and keep it until the fined drivers pay their tickets.

But fined U.S. motorists go back to their country and get new driver's
licenses or license plates and rarely pay their fines to retrieve their documents in Juárez, the local comptroller said.
"For them, it is easier to get new documents in their country than paying their tickets (in Mexico)," the Juárez official said in a statement. "But we lose revenue," he said.

Juárez officials want to set up a joint database with the U.S. to prevent fined U.S. drivers in Mexico from getting new documents, he said.

Marisela Ortega Lozano, mortega@elpasotimes.com; 542-6077.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_17783910