Suit: Stop NYC from erasing ID card data amid Trump concern
NEW YORK — Two state politicians sued on Monday to try to stop New York City from destroying personal records related to its immigrant-friendly municipal ID cards, a move the city is considering to prevent the data from becoming a deportation tool for a new Republican federal administration.
The lawsuit comes ahead of a Dec. 31 date for the city to decide whether to delete copies of the passports, birth certificates, educational records and other documents submitted by more than 900,000 IDNYC cardholders. The date was built into the program from its 2014 start, partly out of concern about the possible election of a Republican president such as President-elect Donald Trump, whose campaign promises included deporting millions of people in the U.S. illegally.
Republican state Assembly members Ron Castorina and Nicole Malliotakis, citing state public-records laws, say in their lawsuit that destroying government records “due to the results of a federal election is against the ideals of the United States and has no basis in law.”
The lawmakers, both from Staten Island, argue that the information could help to trace cardholders if they commit crimes or obtain municipal IDs under fraudulent identities, perhaps for nefarious purposes.