Homeland Security Dept. Admits Making False Statements in Fight With N.Y.
The surprise admission came as the Trump administration unexpectedly reversed its decision to bar New Yorkers from programs that allow travelers to speed through airports.
By Ed Shanahan and Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Published July 23, 2020
Homeland Security officials made false statements in a bid to justify expelling New York residents from programs that let United States travelers speed through borders and airport lines, federal lawyers admitted on Thursday.
The unusual admission, contained in a court filing, said the inaccuracies “undermine a central argument” in the Trump administration’s case for barring New Yorkers from the programs after the state passed a law enabling undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses.
The filing was a surprising retreat by the administration in its continuing battle with Democratic-led states and cities over immigration policy.
Federal officials had previously insisted that New York was an outlier in the restrictions it placed on the access the immigration authorities have to State Department of Motor Vehicles records.
For that reason, they argued, New York was endangering national security and could not be trusted to participate in Global Entry and related programs.
But in their filing on Thursday, the government lawyers acknowledged that several other states, Washington, D.C., and some U.S. territories also limited access to motor vehicle information and had not been subject to similar clampdowns.
Against that backdrop, the filing said, “The acting secretary of homeland security has decided to restore New York residents’ access to” what is officially known as the Trusted Traveler Program “effective immediately.”
The filing on Thursday came in response to lawsuits filed by New York State and the New York Civil Liberties Union over the decision to kick New Yorkers out of the programs.
“Defendants deeply regret the foregoing inaccurate or misleading statements and apologize to the court and plaintiffs for the need to make these corrections at this late stage in the litigation,” said Audrey Strauss, the acting United States attorney in Manhattan.
A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office declined further comment.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/nyregion/trusted-traveler-homeland-security.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20200723&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta®i_id=16112385&segment_id=34220&user_id=75ee940ebe2fd3e9d0a6bb93cf283302
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