Judge Probing Botched Bid to Ban New Yorkers From Global Entry
Judge Probing Botched Bid to Ban New Yorkers From Global Entry
(Bloomberg) -- A U.S. judge will investigate the Department of Homeland Security’s botched attempt to ban New Yorkers from programs that allow pre-screened travelers to breeze through airport passport checks.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan on Wednesday said it is “deeply troubling” that false and misleading information was included in the government’s sworn affidavits purporting to justify the ban. The inaccuracies were so significant -- undercutting the whole premise of the ban -- that the Justice Department apologized to the court and withdrew a motion it filed to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the state challenging the policy.
But Furman said that wasn’t enough. The Justice Department’s letter to the court “conspicuously proffers only a few examples of inaccurate and misleading statements and does not even purport to provide an exhaustive list.” He gave DHS until Aug. 12 to provide a full accounting.
Furman said he wants the Trump administration to explain the origin of each inaccurate statement as well as when the government became aware of the false information and what actions it took. New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a letter to the judge late Tuesday that she’s seeking attorneys’ fees from DHS.
This isn’t the first time Furman has overseen a case in which the Trump administration was on the hook for legal fees after struggling in a high-profile lawsuit. Last year, the judge signed off on a government deal to pay $2.7
million to lawyers who sued to block a citizenship question from being added to the 2020 Census.
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