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Washington, D.C. (November 25, 2019) - A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies examines the potential impact of New York State’s Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act, the “Green-Light law”. The new law provides illegal aliens the means to obtain valid identification and has the effect of shielding them from detection. The New York law, which follows the lead of several other states in diminishing the amount of documentary evidence needed to secure a driver’s license, will result in the vast majority of these new driver’s licenses being based on a document issued by any number of foreign governments that cannot be verified by any U.S. entity. New Jersey is considering a similar law.
One component of the law prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from accessing N.Y. Department of Motor Vehicles (NYDMV) records and information. This prohibition will disrupt CBP inspections at Ports of Entry (POE) as well as hinder ICE and Border Patrol in the course of their daily operations.
The Green-Light law undermines U.S. security in the following ways:
• It provides aliens illegally in the United States and/or others with nefarious intentions a method to obtain a legitimate, state-issued document for identification;
• It requires New York State to issue an identity document based upon information provided by a foreign government with no provision to verify the accuracy of the information;
• It prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection from using information maintained by NYDMV; and
• It creates numerous paradoxical law enforcement relationships that inhibit public safety and immigration enforcement.
The report concludes that the federal government should not simply surrender to the unreasonable and potentially unconstitutional limitations imposed on federal immigration and local law enforcement agencies by this law. The study identifies several ways to circumvent and counteract provisions in the Green-Light law, including the withholding of relevant federal funding for the state, filing lawsuits against New York for attempting to preempt federal authority, and persistent litigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, ICE, and CBP to obtain subpoena compliance.
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