Mayor de Blasio launches municipal ID program in Brooklyn

Mayor de Blasio signed a bill Thursday that launches what’s expected to become the country’s largest municipal ID program — and the administration tried to reassure undocumented immigrants they’ll be safe participating.

Last-minute criticisms from civil-liberties groups amplified concerns that documents provided to register for the IDs could be seized by law enforcement.

“We believe that we can defend against any sort of attempts to access these documents that are a fishing expedition,” Nisha Agarwal, the mayor’s Immigrant Affairs Commissioner, said at the bill-signing ceremony outside the Brooklyn Public Library’s main branch.

She emphasized that authorities would need judicial subpoenas or warrants to access the data.

“We feel very confident about the security and the confidentiality of these cards,” said Agarwal.

But sources said the administration was so sensitive to criticisms of the program that mayoral aides discouraged the New York Civil Liberties Union from testifying against it at a public hearing Wednesday.

A mayoral spokesman called that claim “totally untrue.”

The NYCLU sounded the alarm over privacy concerns because the initial bill authorizing the IDs was changed to allow the city to store documents for up to two years, rather than discard them immediately.

While the Council approved the bill 43-3 last month, one of the two members who abstained said he still has concerns.

“I have to be honest with residents in my district and with… New Yorkers that — potentially — yes, the [federal] government can have access to these things,” said Mark Treyger, a freshman legislator from Brooklyn.

The cards will be issued for free for one year starting January 2015, with an “affordable” cost to be instituted in 2016.

An NYCLU spokeswoman declined comment.