NYC To Stop Retaining Records From People Applying For Municipal IDs
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York City will no longer retain personal records from applicants for its municipal ID cards.
Mayor Bill de Blasio's IDNYC program was setup in part to help undocumented immigrants access ID cards. But with Donald Trump's incoming administration, records from IDNYC could have been used to target those same immigrants, WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reported.
Civil liberties advocates were concerned the new administration would demand that IDNYC records be turned over to investigators searching for undocumented immigrants.
The New York Civil Liberties Union's Donna Lieberman said she was delighted to hear that as of January, there will be nothing to turn over.
"We're really pleased that the mayor has stepped up and that the city will no longer be retaining the underlying documents that are submitted in the process of applying for municipal ID cards," she said. "It will prevent the abuse of a process that has been designed to protect immigrants."
A court has temporarily blocked the city from destroying more than 900,000 current cardholders' records, pending a hearing on Dec. 21.
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