Cuomo budget calls for allowing pot sales, school aid boost
Gov. Andrew Cuomo addresses a regional summit of governors in New York this past October. His $178B proposed budget Tuesday authorizes the sale and taxation of marijuana and seeks to slow a Medicaid spending.
Bebeto Matthews
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused the Trump administration of "extortion" Thursday in response to the federal government's decision to block New Yorkers from programs allowing expedited crossings of the national borders with Canada and Mexico.
Defending New York's sanctuary protections for undocumented immigrants, Cuomo took direct aim at President Donald Trump.
He argued New York is facing "retaliation," likening the federal decision to the pressure Trump's effort to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a political rival of the president.
"This is unbounded arrogance, disrespect of the rule of law, hyper political government, and this is another form of extortion," Cuomo told an upstate public radio station. "This is what Trump did with Ukraine. It is pure politics."
A Cuomo spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, said the state is reviewing its legal options.
The federal move was prompted by the recently enacted Green Light law that allows undocumented immigrants to get New York driver's licenses and prevents federal immigration and customs agencies from accessing motor vehicle data.
According to federal officials, New Yorkers will now be barred from enrolling in the so-called Trusted Traveler Programs (TTPs). No other state is facing such sanctions.
Enrollment in the programs allows travelers to go through border check points in an expedited manner. Those who have already enrolled in the programs will not be immediately impacted. But the action means those planning to enroll or seeking to renew enrollments won't be able to do so. About 175,000 New Yorkers now participate in the programs.
In Plattsburgh, the president of the North Country Chamber of Commerce, Garry Douglas, said his organization heavily promotes participation in the programs for accelerated border clearance.
"There is nothing more important to the North Country economy than our connectivity with Canada," Douglas said in a statement.
"This situation introduces uncertainty and a real threat to business and jobs," Douglas added. "We call on all parties to quickly identify and implement a solution that will lift this suspension."
The controversy over New York's sanctuary policy for licenses quickly rippled into upstate congressional races.
A Trump ally, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-North Country, blamed the federal decision on Cuomo.
"Qualified, legal citizens should not be penalized by the Governor’s unconscionable actions, which not only hinder our border patrol, law enforcement, and other agencies from being able to effectively do their job, but now also prevent our residents from receiving access to important travel programs,” said Stefanik, who is seeking re-election this year.
Another upstate Republican, Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus, offered to mediate the dispute. He told the Syracuse Post Standard that while a dozen other states allow undocumented immigrants to qualify for license, New York is the only one that blocks federal agencies from getting access to the DMV data.
The federal action is expected to have no impact on people using enhanced New York licenses to board domestic flights nor those participating in the Transportation Safety Administration's PreCheck program for travel orgininating at U.S. airports.
New York's Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar urged Cuomo and state lawmakers to repeal the Green Light legislation immediately.
"Governor Cuomo needs to view this Department of Homeland Security decision as a jarring wake-up call, and get busy restoring common sense security measures in our identification document and reporting systems," Kassar said.
The traveler programs impacted include Global Entry, Nexus, SENTRI, designed for those seeking accelerated entry to Canada or Mexico, and FAST, used by many truck drivers heading to Canada.
The decision was issued by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, who pointed out in a letter to state officials that federal law enforcement relies on DMV information in probing those involved in human trafficking, gang activity and the smuggling of fentanyl and other narcotics.
“In New York alone, last year ICE arrested 149 child predators, identified or rescued 105 victims of exploitation and human trafficking, arrested 230 gang members, and seized 6,487 pounds of illegal narcotics, including fentanyl and opioids,” Wolf said in the letter. “In the vast majority of these cases, ICE relied on New York DMV records to fulfill its mission.”
Wolf said the Green Light law impedes U.S. Customs and Border Protection from being able to "confirm whether an individual applying for TTP membership meets program eligibility requirements.”
Ken Cucinelli, a top official in the Department of Homeland Security, told reporters in a conference call New York's law could allow terrorists — such as those who carried out the attacks on September 11, 2001 — to enter the United States without detection.
Cucinelli, a Republican who had run unsuccessfully for the governorship of Virginia, said: "It was embarrassing to us in Virginia, that the majority of 9/11 terrorists used Virginia driver's licenses to help accomplish their evil mission, and we set about to fix that. And we did fix that."
As for New York, Cucinelli said: "Here we have one of the other targets of 9/11, who are walking backwards, quite intentionally, in the other direction to bar the sharing of law-enforcement-relevant information like vehicle registration, matching driver's licenses to identifications, and, critically, criminal records which are kept up to date, and DMV databases."
Cuomo ripped Cucinelli, pointing out that last year the federal official suggested a new inscription for the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge."