Back in February, before Donald Trump started punishing states by withholding protective gear and ventilators, he needed another way to punish his former home state. In retaliation for New York’s refusal to share all driver’s license information with ICE and DHS, residents of the state were banned from Global Entry programs designed to speed Americans through airports. This was back in the Before Time, when Global Entry mattered because Trump had not yet managed to make America such a pariah that its citizens are banned from nearly every destination on the planet.
On Thursday, DHS suddenly reversed itself and lifted the ban, saying that New York was now giving it what was needed. But it wasn’t until later in the day that the real reason for this reversal became clear. As might be expected, this effort to punish New York for perfectly legal actions immediately ended up in court, where the DHS defended the action and made claims about the threat posed by New York’s refusal to share all driver’s license information with ICE and DHS. Now DHS has had to beat a hasty retreat, because it turned out to be lying.
The DHS ban came just three months after Trump officially became a Florida Man, at a point when he was angry at New York for ongoing efforts to secure his tax information. Despite the claims that it was aimed at the state’s refusal to provide vehicle information, information that other states were also not providing, it was clear from the outset that it was meant to punish New York for the ongoing efforts to investigate Trump’s finances. It was also seen as a signal to states that contained “sanctuary cities”—hand over those immigrants, or your people are going to be complaining from the airports.
But the DHS statement that it was voluntarily lifting its NY ban was a long way from the truth. The truth was that DHS had to issue a contrite and highly unusual letter to the judge, apologizing for “inaccurate or misleading statements.” That apology went out to both the court, and to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Details of the court documents show how DHS had already accepted the same level of information provided by New York with other states, but singled New York out for special treatment. Then they went to court and argued that the information provided by New York was inadequate that New Yorkers had to be blocked from the the Global Entry program for “safety.”
In other words, they lied. About everything. Including the reason the ban was started and why it was lifted.