Cuomo, a Democrat who has often criticized President Trump’s hard-line immigration policies. The surprise suspension is just the latest flare in tensions between the Trump administration and Gov. A few of those clerks threatened to call federal immigration officials if an applicant did not have documentation.ĭespite the backlash, when the law took effect in December, offices for the Department of Motor Vehicles were swamped as newly eligible people applied for the legal right to drive. The measure faced resistance from county clerks in more conservative areas upstate who oversee some local motor vehicle offices. Critics raised concerns about verifying applicants’ identities and said the new law undermined federal immigration laws.
Supporters said obtaining a driver’s license made it easier for people to perform routine tasks like dropping off children at school, shopping for groceries and visiting doctors. (New Jersey followed a few months later.) Last year, New York became one of the more than a dozen states to allow it.
Cuccinelli, who confirmed that PreCheck was not affected, warned, “It doesn’t mean it can’t be in the future.” Why is this happening now?įor two decades, there has been a fight in New York over whether to allow undocumented residents the legal right to obtain a state driver’s license. New Yorkers can still can apply to the TSA PreCheck program separately, according to Ms. TSA PreCheck, a program that allows travelers departing from the United States to use a separate, often shorter, line through airport security, is not one of the programs that Mr. Wolf, wrote that New Yorkers would “no longer be able to enroll or re-enroll” in those expedited traveler programs. In a three-page letter announcing the suspension, Homeland Security’s acting secretary, Chad F.
There are a number of Trusted Traveler programs affected by the suspension, including Global Entry (for entry into the United States from abroad) Nexus (for entry from Canada) Sentri (for entry from Canada and Mexico) and Fast (for truck drivers entering from Canada and Mexico). Here is what we know so far: If I am currently enrolled in a Trusted Traveler program, can I still use it? On Thursday morning, the department held a news conference on the status of Trusted Traveler programs, which includes TSA PreCheck, but several aspects were still unclear. The decision to suspend enrollment escalates tensions between the Trump administration and the state, and the Green Light Law’s passage last year prompted backlash in more conservative areas of the state. “We can’t allow the president to come in and try to bully us,” he said. The law’s State Senate sponsor, Luis Sepúlveda, said he and his Democratic colleagues had no intention of revisiting the law.