kob.com
Posted at: 01/25/2012 2:46 PM
By: The Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - The Associated Press requested driver's license data in New Mexico to try to determine whether there was evidence of fraud in the system for granting licenses to foreign nationals without Social Security numbers, including illegal immigrants.

Gov. Susana Martinez's administration provided data without the actual addresses, which are confidential under state law. Instead, addresses were given a unique identifier code, which the AP used to determine how many licenses were issued at each address.

Names were withheld by the administration to protect the confidentiality of license holders, but the state provided a code to indicate when individuals had a common surname so that AP's analysis could potentially spot instances when licenses at an address might have gone to members of the same family.

In response to AP questions about certain addresses, the administration indicated whether those were single-family residences, mobile homes, apartments or businesses.

Separately, state investigators used the data to check more than 100 addresses, including those at which 15 or more licenses had been issued to different individuals.

In many instances, investigators ran into a dead-end because the license holders no longer lived at the address or current residents were unaware other people had used the address to obtain a license.

But state officials say they continue to pursue leads for possible criminal prosecution.

Methods for AP analysis of NM immigrant licenses | KOB.com