[ad_1]
The reason, Wolf said on Fox News, was that New York’s so-called Green Light law — which makes the undocumented eligible for drivers licenses and also shields some DMV data from the federal government — created a security risk. Without the data, he wrote in a warning letter to New York officials, DHS would be unable to process applications for Global Entry and other preferred traveler programs.
Interestingly, DHS did not include the largest such program, TSA Pre-Check, in the warning letter.
This is either a serious coincidence or the beginning of a new election year push to further split the country over the issue of immigration. It’s also his latest broadside against Democratic-leaning states and territories, which he routinely dismisses or targets with punitive policies.
Trump’s politics have always had a tit-for-tat feel to them. Just a few examples:
- He’s got a grudge against Puerto Rico for criticism he faced after his response to Hurricane Maria in 2017. Funds for long-term construction there have been held up. This week the White House threatened to veto a spending bill over aid to Puerto Rico.
- His proposal for more oil drilling in US coastal waters initially exempted the state where he owns a beachfront private club. It’s since been iced by courts.
- He’s got a grudge against California, where the state government opposes him on a number of policy issues. He pulled nearly $1 billion in funding already allocated for high speed rail programs there.
- The state set its own fuel emissions levels for automobiles, so his administration moved to revoke their ability to do so, even though it was written into the law.
- His tax law penalized mostly blue states with higher state taxes by limiting what state and local taxes could be deducted from federal tax returns.
- Most obviously, he held up aid to Ukraine in part because he buys into the conspiracy theory that the country opposed him in 2016.
“Tragically, there are many cities in America where radical politicians have chosen to provide sanctuary for these criminal illegal aliens,” he said, after rattling off statistics about immigrants with criminal records detained this year by ICE.
The Trump administration has long sought to target cities and states, like New York and California, that object to his efforts to crack down on the undocumented.
Most of the states that have sanctuary laws are solidly blue. But, and Trump surely knows this, there are some states up for grabs in 2020 that have outlawed sanctuary provisions for their cities. These include Arizona, North Carolina and Florida, which enacted its anti-sanctuary provision in 2019.
It’s not clear what led up to the DHS decision, but the agency has rejected some of Trump’s past ideas to penalize states and cities friendly to immigrants, such as when he suggested letting detainees loose in sanctuary cities.
Back in April he tweeted, “Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only.” He added: “The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy — so this should make them very happy!”
Look for more of that as he enters election mode this year and turns more publicly to his favorite subject of immigration.
[ad_2]
Source link