Homeland Security resumes Global Entry for New York state
Decision resolves dispute over New York law shielding driver's license records
The Department of Homeland Security said it would resume allowing New York state residents to enroll in Global Entry and other trusted traveler programs, after the federal government suspended the state's access in February over a state law giving unauthorized immigrants driver's licenses.
The state law, which took effect last December, also shields the driver's license records from federal immigration authorities, who use such records to assist in deportations, among other federal law-enforcement activities.
An arriving passenger at Newark international Airport uses a Global Entry kiosk to enter the U.S. (Josh Denmark/CBP)
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf in February said his department was shutting access to the program because it couldn't do the necessary background checks on applicants without access to the program. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called DHS's move politically motivated and offered to give U.S. Customs and Border Protection access to the state's motor-vehicle database for the purposes of considering applications for trusted traveler programs. A provision approved in April as part of the state budget did so.
Mr. Wolf on Thursday cited that change as the reason for the department's decision. "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," he said in a statement.
Mr. Cuomo said Thursday that he was "glad that this issue has finally been resolved."
President Donald Trump listens as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, Friday, March 20, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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CBP, which administers the programs including Global Entry, has shut enrollment centers where application interviews are conducted through Sept. 8 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Besides Global Entry, CBP also administers Nexus and FAST, programs that aid the thousands of residents in upstate and western New York who frequently cross the U.S.-Canada border.
The dispute over access to the programs was a major political issue in New York during February, before the spread of the coronavirus diverted official attention.
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Matthew Albence visited a jail in Troy, N.Y., in February to make the case with local law-enforcement officials that the inability by federal agents to access the motor-vehicle database put them in danger.
U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, a Democrat from Buffalo, said that he was pleased about the agreement but that he wants the border to more fully reopen. Cross-border commerce is a major driver of the local economy, he said.
"Law-abiding Americans and northern border commerce were collateral damage in this policy targeting New Yorkers," Mr. Higgins said Thursday.
Federal immigration and New York officials have for months traded barbs over so-called sanctuary laws that the state and its largest city have adopted to shield immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally from deportation.
At least 12 other states and the District of Columbia allow undocumented immigrants to apply for state driver's licenses, but New York is the only one that declines to share photos, license plates and biographical information from its databases with federal immigration agencies.