Protesters at the New York State Department of Motor Vehicle | Getty Images
ALBANY — Legislation letting undocumented immigrants in New York obtain driver’s licenses is the latest flash points between New York's Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Trump administration.
On Wednesday night, the Department of Homeland Security announced that New Yorkers will no longer be able to enroll in or renew their memberships in expedited border crossing programs like Global Entry as a result of the law, which took effect in December. Cuomo — who learned of the decision at the same time Fox News reported it — characterized it as a political and “anti-immigrant” attack.
Advertisement
Here’s what New York’s law is all about, and how it snowballed to the current point.
What’s the back story with the license law?
Those who regularly pay attention to New York politics first encountered the issue in 2007, when then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced he’d undo an executive action by Republican predecessor George Pataki that required a Social Security number to drive.
The backlash was swift and national. CNN anchor Lou Dobbs made assailing Spitzer the main focus of his prime-time show for weeks. Numerous elected officials, including then-conservative Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, argued it would make the country less safe.
Spitzer’s proposal became the focus of the 2008 Democratic presidential primary for a few days. At a debate, Barack Obama said he supported it, while Hillary Clinton gave a verbose and muddled reply that pleased nobody. Clinton eventually convinced Spitzer to retreat on the issue, which has never polled terribly well.
Fast forward to 2019 — Democrats had just gained their first functional majority in New York’s Legislature in generations, and helping immigrants had become a much more pressing priority for the left.
Cuomo had been a supporter of the concept since Spitzer’s days, but pointed to the backlash as a lesson that a “robust conversation” would be better than unilateral action. After months of attempts to win over moderate Democrats, legislation doing what Spitzer wanted passed and was signed into law in June.
Is this a unique thing?
Nope. When it passed the law, New York became the 13th state to let undocumented immigrants obtain these licenses.
So why target New York?
While debating the bill last year, numerous New York lawmakers raised concerns about the effects of putting the names and addresses of the state’s undocumented immigrants into a database that could easily be accessed by the Trump administration. Language was thus added to limit the ability of DMVs to share information with federal agencies such as ICE.
DHS is arguing that this information is needed to assess whether somebody has access to the travel programs under question.
Customs and Border Protection “is able to offer Trusted Traveler Programs like Global Entry because we are able to use DMV data to make an evidence-based assessment that those individuals who seek this benefit are low risk and meet the eligibility requirements,” said Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf in a statement. “Without the DMV information we aren’t able to make that assessment.”
There’s also a more cynical take.
“They've gone out of their way to hurt New York whenever they can,” Cuomo said in a radio interview on Thursday morning, “because they see New York as one of the targets for the rest of the country, where those New Yorkers, you know those Democrats, that state of immigration, that state of diversity; that's the target, that's the piñata for their conservative ethics in America.”
What happens next?
There is no real possibility that legislators will work to undo last year’s law — there might be some noise from moderates about making changes to placate the feds, but the majority of Democrats will not rush to share the data on undocumented immigrants with the Trump administration. Many will presumably favor waiting until they hope a new administration takes over next year.
A lawsuit from the state is also very much a possibility. Cuomo adviser Rich Azzopardi said Thursday that the administration is “going to review [its] legal options.”
It would not be the first time the Trump administration’s arguments about the data-sharing provisions will find their way before a judge. Republicans in upstate New York's Rensselaer County filed a suit last year claiming these provisions would force them to run afoul of federal statutes; the Department of Justice intervened, arguing they would hinder its ability to enforce immigration laws. That suit was ultimately dismissed due to issues with standing, and the DOJ’s memo was not discussed in the decision.
"back" - Google News
February 07, 2020 at 05:19AM
https://ift.tt/2OySjRI
The back story of the New York driver's license law - POLITICO
"back" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2QNOfxc
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "The back story of the New York driver's license law - POLITICO"
Post a Comment