A former Kentucky DMV employee is blowing the lid off what she describes as a years-long illegal licensing scheme that allowed thousands of undocumented immigrants to get state driver’s licenses — all for a $200 cash payoff per card.

Melissa Moorman, who worked at the Kentucky Department of Transportation, says she personally witnessed fellow employees selling licenses to illegal aliens four or five times a day for at least two years. According to her, the scheme wasn’t just about looking the other way — employees allegedly helped forge documents, bypassed driving tests, and were paid under the table to make it all happen.

Moorman says she did what any honest employee should do: she told her supervisor. But instead of a commendation, she got a pink slip. “I came to work, and my computer was turned off… that was it,” she recalled. “It was a gut punch. I did the right thing. I told the truth. I should not have been fired.”

Kentucky law does allow non-U.S. citizens to obtain licenses, but only if they can prove legal residency with proper documentation. Illegal immigrants, by law, cannot obtain one. Moorman alleges that the DMV staffers not only ignored this requirement but actively produced fake paperwork to facilitate the fraud.

Adding insult to injury, Moorman says her supervisors demanded that she share her secure computer login information — and then used it to process the illegal transactions under her name. By her account, she went from whistleblower to scapegoat almost overnight.

Her attorney blasted the state for punishing the person who came forward. “She should be the hero,” he argued. “There’s a clear failure of oversight here. If you have systems in place to safeguard licensing and testing, an audit should have caught this a long time ago.”

The state only launched an investigation after Moorman filed a lawsuit in April. What they found was staggering. Officials have already sent over 1,500 letters to people holding illegally issued licenses, informing them that their credentials have been revoked and must be surrendered immediately. The letters also warn that those who fail to comply could face criminal charges.

For Moorman, the fallout has been personal as well as professional. She says she was still in supervisor training and had considered the DMV job a promising career path before being abruptly terminated. Now, she’s fighting not only for her reputation but for what she sees as a systemic problem in need of urgent reform.

While the investigation is ongoing, the allegations raise serious questions about how such a widespread scheme could operate for years without detection. If Moorman’s account holds true, it suggests not just individual wrongdoing but a collapse in the DMV’s internal safeguards — one that may have compromised public safety on a massive scale.

As the legal battle unfolds, Moorman hopes her case will lead to greater accountability. “I was angry, hurt, and depressed,” she said. “But if this stops them from doing it again, it will have been worth it.”

The scandal now threatens to become a political flashpoint in Kentucky, where debates over illegal immigration and government accountability are already heated. And with more than a thousand revoked licenses in limbo, the state could be headed for an even bigger fight over how deep the rot goes — and who, ultimately, will be held responsible.