NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — New York’s Green Light Law is under fire. The law was enacted in 2019 allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses and restricts the sharing of state auto bureau information with federal agencies that primarily enforce immigration laws.
"The bottom line is this law is a bad law and it should be repealed," Niagara County Clerk Joseph Jastrzemski said.
State Senator Rob Ortt, alongside other lawmakers and officials, held a news conference at the Niagara County DMV Friday to demand the repeal of the law.
"Shame on us, that we have done that in the state of New York," Ortt said. “This is really about protecting. It's offering another shield, a legal shield, to protect those in the country illegally from federal immigration and the enforcement of federal immigration law."
When I asked if the law had negatively impacted public safety, Ortt responded, “If our sheriff was here. So the problem with the premise of your question is that you won't know because they can't share the information. So every time someone's arrested in New York City that's here illegally, they can't notify federal officials. You don't know, so you don't know who that person is.”
The push from state lawmakers comes after a member of President-elect Trump's administration targeted the law.
According to The Buffalo News, Trump's pick for Border Czar, Tom Homan, suggested potentially blocking New York license plates from entering the U.S. from Canada if the state continues to withhold DMV information from federal agencies.
In response, Governor Kathy Hochul said, “That would be bizarre to me that anyone thinks that stopping our vehicles from coming in and out of our country, keeping New Yorkers in a foreign country is a smart path forward. I'd like to sit down and have that conversation."
DMV Spokesperson Walter McClure sent me the following statement about the push:
Any claim that the Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act is worsening border crime is nothing short of a political fear tactic. If opponents of the law have evidence to the contrary, then we strongly encourage them to expose real, proven data that supports their claims. Furthermore, DMV has never prevented data from being lawfully furnished to agencies that enforce immigration law who have a court order, subpoena or judicial warrant to access DMV data in support of their agency's mission.
It’s also important to remember that this law has helped to make New York’s roads safer by preventing unlicensed and uninsured drivers from getting behind the wheel.
Immigration attorney Rosanna Berardi explained on Voices with Michael Wooten earlier this week that the likelihood of repealing the law is slim.
“At least three lawsuits have been filed in New York State in the last four years, and every court has said the federal government may not like this, but the states have the unilateral authority of controlling driver’s licenses. It’s a state issue,” she said.
“We’re hoping these laws will get some traction, and the federal government can put some pressure on the state of New York,” Ortt said.
