In response to the New York State “Green Light” law that went into affect last year, the Department of Homeland Security announced yesterday that they are suspending Global Entry enrollment and renewal for New York residents.
Global Entry Enrollment and Renewal Suspended for New York Residents
The “Green Light” law had allowed people to get NYS driver’s licenses or permits no matter what their immigration status was. This included allowing people to use foreign passports and other documents to receive these driver’s licenses.
Apparently, part of this law prevents the DMV from giving access to criminal records for Customs and Border Protection and ICE requests. This is part of the background information used for people applying for Global Entry and other Trusted Traveler Programs. However, for now, TSA PreCheck applications are not affected. SENTRI, FAST, and NEXUS applications are also suspended.
This new suspension prevents any New York residents from applying for Global Entry and, more seriously for many, renewing Global Entry permits. As someone who is personally affected by this, I can only hope it is something that will be worked out sooner rather than later.
You can read the letter from DHS here as it was provided to Fox News. Remember, Global Entry is good for 5 years and it can be renewed up to one year before expiration. Also remember that if you currently have Global Entry, you do not lose that but you will not be able to re-enroll when the time comes.
Why Now?
Many would say it is political response to this law since it has followed President Trump’s State of the Union where he called out sanctuary cities. Otherwise, I am not sure what had been going on with submitted applications in the last 6 weeks since this law had come into force in NYS.
At the same time, if the CBP does indeed rely heavily on records and documents from the DMV, it can be understood also that barring the DMV offices from sending this information to CBP and ICE would create a stalled situation.
