A change to New York’s controversial
“Green Light Law” means that state officials who share illegal immigrants' driver data with federal immigration enforcement agencies could face a felony charge.
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The original law went a step further than similar laws in other states by forbidding state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) agencies from
sharing data with immigration authorities like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). But the new amendment goes even further and makes it a class E felony for officials to share the information.
The law says that anyone who receives or has access to DMV records must certify beforehand that they will not use such records for immigration purposes or disclose them to an agency that primarily enforces immigration law. The amendment says that "violation of such certification shall be a class E felony."
The law also states that any such person must identify any immigration official or entity that received department records or information from any such certifying person or entity. The amendment says that a failure to maintain such records is also a class E felony.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York J.P. Kennedy told
WKBW that the new amendment was “legislating obstruction.”
“We’ve seen how important communication and coordination in coming up with a response to the pandemic and sort of causing people to work in isolation it’s a recipe for disaster,” he said of not being able to share information.
Democrats and immigrant rights groups have repeatedly praised the Green Light Law, saying it helps unite communities and makes roads safer by making sure all drivers have licenses.
“It’s a public safety issue. So even if you’re not in full compliance with the immigration laws, you can get a driver’s license if you take the test and if you pass the test, because we want to make sure if you are driving, you know what you are doing,” Cuomo said
earlier this year.
But law enforcement groups and federal immigration agencies have furiously
opposed the legislation. An association of
New York sheriffs said in February that it was “offensive” that they had been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements promising not to share information with their federal partners.
The law also requires that license holders be told within days when immigration enforcement agencies request DMV data -- something law enforcement fears could alert suspects that they are being investigated.
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“Basically [Cuomo] said it was more important... that illegal aliens have drivers’ licenses than it is for his state officers to actually do their jobs and go home safely at the end of the night,” he said.