Photo by Frank Franklin II / AP
NEW YORK – A federal judge rebuked the Department of Homeland Security for making statements it admitted were false in trying to ban New York State from travel programs.
The Trump administration expelled New York from Global Entry and other accelerated border crossing programs earlier this year by state law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.
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But last week, the feds backed down and allowed New York to return to the program. DHS officials admitted in court documents that they had made false statements in an effort to push the ban, which New York was suing to overturn.
On Wednesday, US District Judge Jesse Furman called the admissions “deeply troubling disclosures.”
The Trump administration had said that New York imposed restrictions, unlike any other state, on the access that immigration authorities have to Department of Motor Vehicle records. In fact, they later acknowledged, several other states have the same restrictions, but have never faced attempts to block them from travel programs.
Furman noted that the court “has the power to conduct an independent investigation to determine whether it has been a victim of fraud.”
He said last week’s submissions by DHS and the Justice Department do not “completely correct the record,” as they suggest, as it only provides a few examples of inaccurate and misleading statements, and is not even intended to provide an exhaustive list. . “
The judge required the federal government to submit “an exhaustive record of each and every” inaccurate “or” misleading “statement in its previous filings” before August 12.
The report must detail all inaccurate statements, identify who made the statement and who was responsible for its content, summarize what due diligence was done by government attorneys to verify the accuracy of the statements before filing them in court, and explain how officials are they found out the falsehoods.
“The person or persons responsible for the content of the report should be prepared to testify about how it was compiled if the Court determines that it is appropriate,” Furman wrote.
Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
