New York and New Jersey’s attorneys general have joined a multistate coalition suing to stop the Trump administration from accessing the personal information of 17 million commercial drivers nationwide, including hundreds of thousands across both states. The dust-up could already have implications for your commute or child\u2019s school bus trip.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit seeks to keep the federal government from seizing records including the names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers of commercial driver’s license holders. The administration has threatened to eliminate federal funding for the nationwide database that contains the information, unless the records are turned over by Aug. 17.<\/p>\n
The sprawling tussle \u2014 the legal action was joined by 21 largely Democratic-controlled states and the District of Columbia \u2014 raises legal questions about data privacy and control over the database, which New York alone queries some 30,000 times a day. But the plaintiffs also allege the administration hasn\u2019t been candid about why it wants the data; they further charge the real aim is to use the information for immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, an arm of the Department of Transportation, \u201cin fact intends to share the data with the [Department of Homeland Security] for immigration enforcement purposes,\u201d according to the complaint. \u201cThat agency could take action against the States and their residents \u2014 including initiating immigration enforcement proceedings \u2014 based on that data, again even if the data is incomplete or erroneous.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a brief statement late Friday, DHS said the administration is targeting dangerous \u201cillegal aliens\u201d whom it says don\u2019t know traffic laws or English, and criticized politicians who allow dangerous drivers on the road.<\/p>\n
The federal government starting in September a year ago began threatening to withhold highway funds to states that refused to stop issuing commercial licenses to many noncitizen applicants. The Trump administration said new restrictions<\/a> were warranted in response to accidents DOT Secretary Sean Duffy blamed on \u201cforeign drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n New York state followed by pausing the \u201cnon-domiciled\u201d program<\/a>, which allowed drivers who do not live in the state, including immigrants legally present in the United States, to obtain commercial licenses. While legal challenges continue<\/a>, New York labor and other officials have said the dispute could potentially sideline hundreds of thousands of immigrant drivers, including those driving MTA vehicles and school buses. Some foreign drivers have already been barred from renewing their commercial licenses.<\/p>\n In the meantime, the plaintiff states are trying to keep the CDL data out of reach.<\/p>\n \u201cThe chilling effect of the transfer of data is particularly acute for some individuals who are concerned in general about disclosing their personal information to the federal government, such as noncitizens who are legally present in the United States and lawfully qualified to obtain a CDL, or individuals who are part of mixed-status immigration families,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n Letitia James, the New York attorney general, said the state has received no assurances the data sought by the administration would be kept confidential. She said the federal government\u2019s actions could worsen existing shortages of commercial drivers. The lawsuit, filed in a federal district court in Virginia, asks a judge to declare the federal government\u2019s data demands unlawful, block the government from obtaining the states\u2019 records, and to prevent the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators from turning over the information while litigation continues. The database is owned by the states and operated by the AAMVA.<\/p>\n Arya Sundaram contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York and New Jersey’s attorneys general have joined a multistate coalition suing to stop the Trump administration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-322154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cThe Trump administration is attempting to seize confidential state records without any lawful justification,\u201d James said in a statement. \u201cNew Yorkers provide their personal information to the state with the expectation that it will be protected, not handed over to anyone who demands it.\u201d<\/p>\n