Yesterday, the Trump administration announced it is temporarily banning New York residents from enrolling in Global Entry and other Trusted Traveler programs, citing the state’s “sanctuary” policies that limit federal access to state driver’s license data.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said New York’s so-called Green Light Law prevents agencies like U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement from gaining access to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles databases in order to thoroughly vet applicants for Global Entry, SENTRI (Canada and Mexico) and NEXUS (Canada). The law was passed last year and signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and allows New York DMV’s to accept applications for driver’s licenses regardless of immigration status.
“Although DHS would prefer to continue our longstanding 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,” Wolf said in a letter.
New York residents already enrolled in Global Entry and other Trusted Traveler programs will not lose their status but won’t be able to renew under the new policy.
In a public radio interview earlier today, Gov. Cuomo said the administration’s decision to inconvenience New York residents is purely retaliatory for state efforts to protect immigrants and ensure that all drivers in the state are licensed.
“This is unbounded arrogance, disrespect of the rule of law, hyper-political government, and this is another form of extortion,” Cuomo said.
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