The Independent View: Congressional Lawsuit Trying to Stop NY Destruction of Municipal ID Records Under Review

Two Congressional Committees are reviewing a Lawsuit seeking to stop the New York City from destroying Municipal-ID card records.

Officials with the Senate Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Investigations and the House Committee on Homeland Security have received copies of a Suit seeking to preserve such records and are discussing whether to investigate Mayor de Blasio’s policy that seeks to destroy them, sources said.

The City-issued IDNYC card has been popular among Undocumented Immigrants because it allows any City resident age 14 and older to access Government Buildings and open Bank accounts regardless of their Immigration status.

De Blasio vowed in November to protect City Immigrants by deleting any personal information collected from Municipal ID cardholders or retaining records of new cardholders after January in defiance of President Trump’s promises to deport undocumented criminal offenders.

“The mayor has made it very clear the city will do everything in its power to protect the privacy and confidentiality of New Yorkers,” a City Hall spokeswoman said Friday.

But Staten Island Republican Assemblyman Ron Castorina, one of the Lawsuit plaintiffs, said de Blasio was “fear mongering” among voters since Federal Law Enforcement Agencies can pull other Government records, such as School and Health records, to help them in Deportation proceedings.

“This is his re-election campaign,” the lawmaker said. “He is running against Donald Trump.”
He hoped Congress called the Preservation of IDNYC records an “issue of national security and the integrity of our financial services.”

Trump has not made any statements on Municipal ID programs or said he would use its data for Deportations but Castorina sent a copy of his Lawsuit to White House Attorneys last week.

Castorina said the Mayor should stay out of the Immigration debate. “I’m in a longtime supporter of pathway to citizenship, but my personal opinions aside, the mayor doesn’t have any business in immigration policy,” he said. “If he wants to wade into immigration maybe he should run for Congress.”