NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday lifted its ban on the “Trusted Traveler Program” for New York state residents, months after the state filed a lawsuit over the policy.
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in February after it rolled out a policy barring New Yorkers from “enrolling or re-enrolling in the federal government’s Trusted Traveler Programs,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office said at the time.
DHS used the state’s “Green Light” law — which allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses and keeps driver’s license records from federal immigration authorities — as justification for the ban, according to Cuomo’s office.
In a release on Thursday, DHS said Cuomo and the state legislature “amended the law that prevents sharing of information to federal law enforcement officers” to “expressly allow for information-sharing of (DMV) records as ‘necessary for an individual seeking acceptance into a trusted traveler program, or to facilitate vehicle imports and/or exports.’"
“We appreciate the information sharing to CBP for the trusted travel program, which enables DHS to move forward and begin once again processing New York residents under the Trusted Travel Program,” DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement. “Nonetheless, local New York law continues to maintain provisions that undermine the security of the American people and purport to criminalize information sharing between law enforcement entities.”
“The Green Light Law ultimately undermines the efforts of law enforcement officers, criminalizing their mission to secure the nation and the American people from threats and furthering the risk to their own lives,” Wolf added. “When jurisdictions like New York fail to cooperate with federal authorities, they operate more like refuges from criminal behavior, not sanctuary havens.”