Cillizza: Fill us in. What is happening here? Cuomo and Trump are facing off over who gets access to DMV records? Why?
Now, New York is not the first state to pass a law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a license. The key here is that the law also barred the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, from accessing New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles database.
DHS uses those databases for a host of reasons that extend beyond immigration enforcement. So beyond the law supporting undocumented immigrants, it also, DHS argues, interferes with its security mission — and that, it seems, was the last straw.
Cillizza: Why does the Trump administration even care about getting access to DMV records?
Alvarez: Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told CNN last week the DMV database gives the department insight into whether a trusted traveler applicant has a DUI or another aggregated traffic offense — information he says is no longer available.
Only after there’s a conviction does information generally get transferred to other law enforcement databases that DHS still has access to, a senior CBP official told congressional staff this week.
“The state of New York is asking us to try to vet New York residents for these trusted travel programs without all the information,” Wolf said. “Of course, we can’t do that. DHS and CBP has to make a risk assessment. To make a risk assessment, we need all of the information that we’ve been using for Global Entry for some time.”
Cuomo, meanwhile, said ending access to the Trusted Traveler Programs was “pure politics.”
Bottom line: DHS is arguing DMV records are important for vetting and law enforcement purposes, while critics say the administration is retaliating against the state for its sanctuary law.
Cillizza: Was the “Green Light Law” controversial when it passed?
Cillizza: What has Cuomo said he’s willing to do?
Alvarez: On Wednesday, Cuomo said the state will give federal authorities access to the DMV database specifically for those applying for the Trusted Traveler Program, while stressing that he still sees this as a political ploy.
“I will give them the DMV database for Trusted Traveler. These are people who go for an in-person federal interview with all sorts of background information. So it’s pure politics and that is what I am going to say to the President tomorrow,” Cuomo told local radio host Jay Oliver Wednesday morning.
There still doesn’t seem to be much communication between New York and DHS, however. A DHS spokesperson told CNN in a statement Wednesday that “the Department has not yet received a proposal from the State of New York. We are only aware of media reports at this time.”
So, things still seem dicey.
Cillizza: Finish this sentence: “The Trump-Cuomo Global Entry fight will end with ________.”
Alvarez: … maybe with some access to DMV records for Trusted Traveler Programs applicants, but who knows!
