The Trump Administration has directed that New York State residents be cut off from “trusted traveller” programs that enable people to quickly return from travel outside the country. The move is in retaliation to the state’s “Green Light” law, that allows individuals to use foreign-issued documents to prove their age and identity so they can apply for driving privileges.

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers whose applications for the programs are pending or who have to renew their enrolment by the end of the year will have to undergo customs and passport checks as they enter the country as a result of the action, said Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

The move is a vindictive Trump administration push back against states that have sought to protect people who are in the country without legal authorization amid a federal crackdown.

Cuccinelli said DHS is considering additional penalties against New York and evaluating the progress of a similar proposal in Washington state.

“These are all unfortunate consequences of New York’s `Green Light’ law,” he said in a conference call. “Obviously we would urge New York to undo that law and restore some sanity to its own attempts to help preserve public safety.”

Other states have allowed people in the country without legal authorization to obtain a driver’s license, but New York is the only state that has banned the Department of Motor Vehicles from sharing records with DHS, said Heather Swift, a spokeswoman for the agency.

There are about 150,000 New York residents who are now enrolled in programs such as Global Entry and will be forced out as they come up for their annual renewals by the end of the year. Another 80,000 people have applications pending or have been conditionally approved and will feel the effects of the ban immediately.

It could mean costly delays for the nearly 30,000 commercial truck drivers enrolled in a program that enables them to quickly cross the US-Canada border at four ports of entry in upstate New York.

In a three-page letter, DHS said the Green Light law prevents federal agencies from protecting residents from “menacing threats to national security and public safety.”

The sweeping move came a day after Donald Trump slammed New York, a sanctuary city, in his State of the Union address. Sanctuary cities are localities that provide added protection to immigrants and refuse to co-operate with federal officials.

The law, which went into effect in December, blocks US Customs and Border Protection, which patrols the US-Canada border in New York, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement from obtaining the vehicles’ owners’ information.

Chad Wolf, acting head of the Homeland Security Department, called New York’s new law “disappointing” during a Fox News interview late Wednesday night. He said the suspension of the programs, used by travellers to quickly move through customs and security at airports, was effective immediately.

“They (New York residents) can’t enrol or reenroll in these trusted traveller programs that customs and border protections offers because we no longer have access to make sure that they meet those program requirements,” he said.

A senior adviser to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, said the move by DHS was politically motivated.

“This is obviously political retaliation by the federal government and we’re going to review our legal options,” Azzopardi said.