Proposed bill would exempt Northern Border counties from Green Light Law

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — Some conservative leaders along New York's Canadian border want to repeal New York's Green Light Law. Three Republican legislators and four North Country sheriffs held a press conference to promote legislation to invalidate the law in border counties.

State Senator Dan Stec—representing the 45th Senate District—and Assemblymembers Scott Gray and Ken Blankenbush—representing 116th and 117th Assembly Districts—the want to help local, state, and federal law enforcement work together better to handle illegal border crossings. Their bill—S2147/A5145—would facilitate cooperation between law enforcement agencies at all levels.

The bill exempts counties that border Canada from New York's controversial Driver's License Access and Privacy Act of 2019—S1747B/A3675B, commonly called the Green Light Law. It lets undocumented immigrants apply for driver’s licenses without having to prove they are in the U.S. legally. Part of the law blocked the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) from sharing records with federal immigration agents.

If passed, the repeal would grant different rules for licensing and permitting drivers to counties along the Northern Border: St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton, Jefferson, Niagara, Erie, and Orleans. The bill would maintain current privacy standards elsewhere in the state while connecting these counties' agencies with federal offices.

“Because of the ill-conceived policies coming from the governor, there’s an ongoing crisis along our northern border. I’ve heard repeatedly from our law enforcement officials along the border that a major impediment in addressing security and illegal immigration concerns is the Green Light Law," said Sen. Stec. "As lawmakers, we have an obligation to secure our border and protect lawful residents."

Rep. Gray stressed the importance of working together, saying in part, “It is imperative that we enable full cooperation between federal, state, and local law enforcement. The current restrictions under the Green Light Law hinder our ability to effectively manage and secure our communities.”

“We need to repeal the state’s Green Light Law immediately," Rep. Blankenbush agreed. "Once again, Albany and the NYC Democrats show they are incapable of considering the entire state."

Law enforcement officials also appeared at the press conference alongside the lawmakers at the St. Lawrence County Courthouse in Canton on Tuesday afternoon. Sheriffs Rick Engle of St. Lawrence County, Jay Cook of Franklin County, David Favro of Clinton County, and Pete Barnett of Jefferson County said the changes would support public safety. They consider illegal border crossings from Canada a local symptom of an ongoing national migrant crisis.

Ever since the pandemic closures ended at the Northern Border, U.S. Congressmember Elise Stefanik has consistently called out security issues there. "We have had skyrocketing of illegals crossing the Northern Border in the Swanton Sector," she said in an interview with Fox Business on September 19. "This is leading directly to a loss of the life of Americans and a lack of safety and security in communities.”

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand plans to hold another press conference related to Northern Border crossings. According to her office, she's proposing legislation that would update and strengthen security to deal with increasing unauthorized crossings and migrant deaths in the winter. She scheduled a virtual press conference for the morning of Wednesday, September 25.

The Green Light Law lets all New York residents age 16 and up apply for a standard, non-commercial driver’s license or learner’s permit, even if they aren't a U.S. citizen or don't have legal immigration status. Applicants do not strictly need a social security card or number, though they do need documentation proving name, date of birth, and residency.

The law essentially gives a legal photo identification to anyone in New York while limiting what information can be shared with immigration enforcers. When the law first passed, officials estimated that 265,000 undocumented immigrants would get licenses by the end of 2022. In the first month alone, over 50,000 of them received a driver's license, according to official estimates.

The DMV has to let people know when those agencies request their data. Applicants still have to pass written tests and road tests and pay the usual fees. The law does not confer citizenship or let applicants register to vote if they're not eligible. Reached for comment on Tuesday, a spokesperson from the DMV said:

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 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.

Walter McClure, NYS DMV

Legislators have floated other changes to the Green Light Law over the years. Instead of standard driver's licenses, S4447A would have issued "driving privilege licenses" to applicants who don't have social security numbers or couldn't prove their legal status. A5395 would have repealed the law altogether. Both would have required a social security number to get a license.

In 2019, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the divisive bill that sparked lawsuits from county clerks. He called it a public safety issue, and wanted to make sure drivers in New York passed a driving test even if they did not fully comply with federal immigration laws.

Other supporters said the law would help immigrants find jobs, drive their families to work or school, and apply for college or housing. They argued that it would also bring more money to the state through taxes and fees, lower car insurance rates, let residents use banks, and boost economies by giving those residents access to better jobs.

Opponents argued that people who break immigration rules shouldn’t get licenses. In the nearly five years since the law took effect, they've argued that the law would make it easier to commit voter fraud, and that stopping county and DMV offices from sharing private info with the federal government was unconstitutional. Erie, Rensselaer, Niagara, Monroe, and Onondaga Counties all challenged the law at the time.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, "The Green Light Law undermines U.S. security in the following ways:

• It provides aliens illegally in the U.S. 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 (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from using information maintained by the DMV
• It creates numerous paradoxical law enforcement relationships that inhibit public safety and immigration enforcement"

Because the DMV doesn't have to give information to CBP, ICE, or Citizenship and Immigration Services, border officials need a court order, subpoena, or warrant to access its database. That's why the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) banned New Yorkers’ from certain Trusted Traveler Programs (TTP) like Global Entry.

DHS officials said that, while other states had similar laws, only New York kept ICE from DMV records. They maintained that it prevented CBP from seeing certain traffic convictions—like DWIs—that could disqualify someone from TTP.

“This law provides protections to all New Yorkers by making our roads safer, growing our economy, and allowing immigrants to come out of the shadows to sign up as legal drivers in our state,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in 2020. She sued the Trump administration back then over the DHS ban, and the state also tweaked the Green Light Law to grant the feds access to the driving records of anyone applying for TTPs.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ultimately ruled that DHS broke the law by blocking more than 800,000 New Yorkers from these programs. He called the government's move to exclude the state arbitrary and capricious.

New York became the 13th state to let drivers get licenses without legal immigration status or social security numbers. Other states with similar laws include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.