By: Mike Mustiglione
President Donald J. Trump is winning his tug of war with New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, but it has been a hard-fought contest.
Last week, Cuomo said he would give in and give away even more information from the Department of Motor Vehicles to Federal authorities then he had previously said he would. His priority continues to be protecting illegal aliens who applied for driver’s licenses under New York State’s recently passed Green Light Law.
Only several weeks ago, US Customs and Border Protection said it would refuse to accept applications from New York State residence looking to begin or renew membership in The Trusted traveler programs. Cuomo told reporters recently that he is calling the president’s bluff, but admitted that he expected to lose. Cuomo put out an official statement in which he noted:
“In response to the acting ICE director’s statements, I want to again make my position clear: I have said from Day 1 we will never allow the DMV database to be used for immigration purposes. The Trump administration has been increasing their threats to hold New Yorkers hostage to their demand to turn over the DMV database for ICE and Customs and Border Protection to use to aid their deportation of innocent law abiding undocumented families.
“Every situation they have raised I have answered. We can provide trusted travel information. We can provide the automobile export industry information. What they really want and what we can’t provide is use of the DMV data for immigration purposes. Period. Their extortion and bullying will not work in New York.
“In addition, as many national, state and local law enforcement agencies currently have access to our DMV database and the potential for surreptitious access to the database is very real, I am exploring alternatives to minimize the harm caused by unauthorized use of our database such as removal of social security numbers–which could be used to evidence undocumented status–and increasing the penalty for unauthorized use of the DMV database.
“The Trump administration’s increasing attempts to extort New York State compliance by inconveniencing law abiding citizens will not be effective. I will never allow use of the DMV database for immigration actions.”
Cuomo and his fellow Democrats have made it clear that their priority is protecting illegal aliens, even at the risk of life and limb to American citizens.
“This is extortion,” Cuomo said to reporters in a phone conference. “What they’re thinking is Let’s increase pressure on the governor by hurting, h-u-r-t-i-n-g, hurting groups of people who will pressure him to change his position.”
