Tish James | Mary Altaffer/AP Photo New York to sue over Trump’s border-crossing decision

ALBANY — New York officials confirmed on Friday that they will sue the Department of Homeland Security over its decision to block state residents from participating in expedited border-crossing programs.

“This is political retribution, plain and simple, and while the president may want to punish New York for standing up to his xenophobic policies, we will not back down,” Attorney General Tish James said in a release. “We will not allow New Yorkers to be targeted or bullied by an authoritarian thug.”


The Trump administration announced on Wednesday night that New York residents are no longer eligible to enroll or renew in programs like Global Entry or NEXUS due to the state’s new law letting undocumented immigrants obtain driver’s licenses. The law prohibits Departments of Motor Vehicles from sharing information with federal immigration enforcement agencies; DHS has argued that this information is necessary to screen applicants for these programs.

The federal government “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,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf in a statement on Thursday. “Without the DMV information we aren’t able to make that assessment.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo dismissed this line of reasoning at a news conference on Friday afternoon.

“You don’t have to be a licensed driver to qualify for the federal trusted traveler program. It is pure politics,” he said.

Cuomo compared the Trump administration’s actions to its involvement in Ukraine that led to the president's impeachment.

“There’s supposed to be a line between politics and government,” he said. “Yes, you want to investigate Joe Biden, yes we understand that, he might be your opponent. You can’t use federal money to extort Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden! You can’t put those two things together. You want to make a point about immigration, I understand that; you want to make a point that Democrats are bad on immigration and they shouldn’t give undocumented people a driver’s license, I understand that. You can’t then use the government to come up with an arbitrary policy that hurts hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to make your political point.”

The lawsuit has not actually been filed yet, but Cuomo promised the state would be doing so “forthwith.”