The U.S. Department of Homeland Security immediately began blocking New Yorkers from enrolling in travel-expediting programs like Global Entry this week in an apparent bid to pressure other states not to pursue a Green Light Law, which went into effect in December.
New York's law allows unauthorized immigrants to apply for licenses but takes it one step further than other jurisdictions with similar laws by blocking Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from accessing records regarding a driver's license without a court order.
New York officials say the state will sue over the decision. In a statement today, Attorney General Letitia James said the state will take legal action against the Trump adminsitration and wrote "This is political retribution, plain and simple, and while the president may want to punish New York for standing up to his xenophobic politics, we will not back down."
Federal authorities have said state legislation like New York's Green Light Law makes it harder to enforce federal immigration laws but state officials disagree.
Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) told Cheddar "I don't understand why you would draft that legislation" and expressed disappointment by what he said was a lack of communication between DHS and New York. "If you were going to do this, at least give the DHS a heads up so they can look at the legislation and mitigate the impacts in the meantime."
Though some, like Reed, think the law needs to be repealed, Steve Choi, who leads the New York Immigration Coalition, said in a statement the law keeps New Yorkers safe.
"The notion that the Trump administration needs names and addresses from the DMV database — or has any idea how to keep New Yorkers safe — is laughable," Choi wrote. He also noted DHS had not implemented a similar ban on the other states that allow undocumented persons to get licenses. "All New Yorkers are safer because of the Green Light law, and we're smart enough to see through this latest attempt to attack the protections for immigrants that New York has proudly enacted."
Some see the move as retaliation for New York's "sanctuary" policies, which the Trump administration has vowed to fight, but the acting Director of Homeland Security Chad Wolf stated in a letter that CBP needs access to New York DMV information "to validate that an individual applying for Trusted Traveler Programs (TTP) membership qualify for low-risk status or meets other program requirements."
He continued in his letter by writing "although DHS would prefer to continue our long-standing cooperative relationship with New York on a variety of these critical homeland security initiatives, this Act and the corresponding lack of security cooperation from the New York DMV requires DHS to take immediate action to ensure DHS's efforts to protect the homeland are not compromised."
"The Trump Administration's ban on all New Yorkers applying for Global Entry and other Trusted Traveler programs is a purely punitive move that has nothing to do with security," Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement. He called it a "clearly a blatant attempt by the White House to score political points and perpetuate a partisan fight with New York elected officials."
*This article was updated with new information regarding New York state's response. *
