NYC to stop storing undocumented immigrants’ application data

New York City intends to end the policy of holding onto data from undocumented immigrants, which has been obtained via their applications for a municipal ID card. This is in a bid to protect undocumented immigrants from possible deportation under the Trump administration.

A joint statement from the City Council and the office of Mayor, Bill de Blasio, says that the IDNYC program will change its policy to no longer hold the personal background documents of cardholders. The new policy will apply to the processing of all complete applications from the beginning of next year. IDNYC cards are a legal method of identification in New York. They enable holders to become members of city museums and libraries, to open bank accounts and qualify for benefits, such as discounts, regardless of their immigration status.

Applicants for the cards will still need to provide documents proving their identity to get an IDNYC card. But, that information will no longer be retained by the city after the application has been granted. New York has until the end of this year to make a decision about what to do with the personal data from hundreds of thousands of city residents.

Not everyone is happy with the new policy. Nicole Malliotakis, an Assemblywoman for Staten Island, calls the idea of distributing almost 900,000 ID cards, and then destroying the data behind the applications, ‘unconscionable’.