Cuomo made a concession: federal authorities will gain access to information about immigrants in New York

State Governor Andrew Cuomo agreed to grant federal immigration authorities access to the Department of Motor Vehicles database, but without his clients' social security numbers. In exchange for this, the government should return New York to the list of states whose residents can cross the border at airports under the expedited procedure. This publication writes State of politics.

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On Friday, February 21, Cuomo proposed giving federal immigration authorities access to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) database. In particular, a complete database of the department’s clients, but without their social security numbers.

The move, Cuomo said, would allow federal immigration authorities to get the information they requested, but would prevent them from identifying undocumented immigrants who apply for state driver's licenses because the only difference they have from other applicants is that they do not have Social Security numbers.

“I'm willing to give them anything but Social Security numbers,” Cuomo told WAMC. — Social Security numbers are an indicator of whether a person has legal documents in the United States or not. I will never give them Social Security numbers in the DMV database.”

In return, New Yorkers will gain access to trusted travel programs such as Nexus and FAST. These programs make it faster and easier to cross borders at airports and seaports.

This is a departure from Cuomo’s public position on this issue. Such a move would likely require changes to state law to allow illegal immigrants to apply for a driver’s license and to prevent federal immigration authorities from accessing DMV data (this was done to avoid the risk of deportation of illegal immigrants).

It is unclear whether the legislature, led by Democrats, will support this change.

Read more at ForumDaily New York.

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