New York State officials are planning to sue the Trump administration following the decision to suspend enrollment in Trusted Travelers Programs for New York residents.
The announcement on Friday to pursue a lawsuit comes after the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that New York residents would be blocked from participating in the programs, which allow travelers to circumvent lines after they are cleared from a background-check process, the New York Times reported. The DHS decision was in response to New York’s new green light law, which bans information sharing between DMVs and DHS agencies without a court order in order to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.
Customs and Boarder Protection (CBP) argued that allowing New York residents to continue applying for trusted traveler programs would jeopardize the security of the programs since officials would not have access to state DMV information. Offenses such as DUIs and aggravated traffic offensive records would make an applicant to the programs ineligible. (RELATED: ‘We Had To Take Action’: Administration Explains Why New York’s ‘Green Light’ Endangers Public Safety)
New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, will argue that the government’s actions were arbitrary and capricious, and did not provide state residents equal protection and violated the state’s sovereign immunity, according to NYT.
“We’re going to disclose this political intrusion into government, this ham-handed political tactic, that once again hurts New Yorkers to make their political point,” New York Democratic Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said Friday.
Time and time again President Trump has gone out of his way to punish New York and other blue states for refusing to fall in line with their dangerous and divisive agenda.
New York will sue over @DHSGov‘s decision to ban New Yorkers from the Trusted Traveler Program. https://t.co/D6Yy4dWRdH
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) February 7, 2020
The administration has said that if New York were to grant DHS access to DMV records, the ban on enrollment for New Yorkers would be lifted.