New York Post — Get the shredders ready — the Tea Party could be coming.
The city’s new municipal ID program allows for personal info provided by applicants to be destroyed at the end of 2016, in case a conservative Republican wins the White House and demands the data, the law’s co-sponsor told The Post on Monday.
City Councilman Carlos Menchaca (D-Brooklyn) said the measure was crafted so data submitted by those seeking the cards can be destroyed on Dec. 31, 2016.
The cards are aimed at undocumented immigrants.
“In case a Tea Party Republican comes into office and says, ‘We want all of the data from all of the municipal ID programs in the country,’ we’re going to take the data,” he explained.
The next president assumes office Jan. 20, 2017.
“That date is an important signal to the future of immigration reform. That allows us to prepare for any new leadership,” Menchaca said.
In order to get an ID, residents must provide their names, addresses, aliases, dates of birth and other information, making it easy for the feds to identify undocumented immigrants.
Menchaca said the Obama administration has shown no interest in going after the data, but he didn’t want to take any chances on the next administration.
“Though we have not seen documents like this get requested at the level of the federal government, that could be a possibility, so that really allows us to protect the data,” he said.
Immigrant advocates praised the provision.
“It’s no secret that one of the biggest sticking points in the ID programs is ensuring that there’s confidentiality, that immigrants are comfortably giving their information to the city,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.
“The sunset is part and parcel of the effort to ensure confidentiality.”
The bill lets the city destroy the info if it determines it’s no longer needed.
The cards were first available early last month. Demand has been overwhelming, with more than 200,000 appointments made for the cards in less than a month.
