Trump lets New Yorkers back into federal travelers program

By MARINA VILLENEUVE
July 24, 2020

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Five months after it kicked New Yorkers out of trusted traveler security programs in a spat over immigration policy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reversed itself Thursday and told a court it had misrepresented the facts in a lawsuit over the matter.

The department announced that New Yorkers would once again be allowed to enroll and re-enroll in Global Entry and other federal travel programs that allow vetted travelers to avoid long security lines at airports and the U.S. border.

President Donald Trump’s administration in February booted New Yorkers from the programs, saying it was taking the action because a newly enacted state law allowing unauthorized immigrants to get driver’s licenses had cut off some federal access to state motor vehicle records.

In its announcement Thursday, Homeland Security said it was reversing New York’s expulsion from the program because the state legislature in April had amended the law to allow federal officials to access the records of people applying for trusted traveler status.

But in a court filing later Thursday, attorneys for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, which had been representing the Department of Homeland Security in the legal fight over the state’s expulsion, disclosed that federal officials had also misled the court about some key facts in the dispute.

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