U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Wednesday the U.S. Department of Justice is suing New York over immigration enforcement, specifically the state’s Green Light Law.
The law allows undocumented immigrants to apply for drivers’ licenses without providing a Social Security number. Applicants can use other forms of identification, like passports or drivers’ licenses from other countries, and they are still required to pass a road test.
“New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens. It stops. It stops today,” Bondi said.
What is New York’s Green Light Law?
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the law in 2019, making New York the 13th state to enact such a measure. The goal of the law was to make it safer for everyone on the road by to making it easier for immigrant drivers to get insurance.
At least 19 states, including New Jersey and Connecticut, now have similar laws in place, along with the District of Columbia.
The drive-only licenses cannot be used to vote or for some federal or state identification purposes. In Connecticut, for example, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles makes it clear on its website the licenses are only to be used for driving and registering a motor vehicle.
What is the issue?
The details of these laws differ from state-to-state, including whether a driver’s information can be shared with federal authorities.
“The law provides a number of privacy protections that limit data sharing, including to agencies that primarily enforce immigration laws, and requires disclosure to the license holders when immigration enforcement agencies request data from DMV,” according to the New York Department of Motor Vehicles’ website.
Bondi said that’s precisely the issue.
“It’s tipping off an illegal alien and it’s unconstitutional,” she said Wednesday. “And that’s why we filed this lawsuit.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is named in the DOJ lawsuit, responded with a statement Wednesday evening, saying the law “has been upheld by the courts time and again.”
“Here are the facts: Our current laws allow federal immigration officials to access any DMV database with a judicial warrant. That’s a common sense approach that most New Yorkers support. But there’s no way I’m letting federal agents, or Elon Musk’s shadowy DOGE operation, get unfettered access to the personal data of any New Yorker in the DMV system like 16-year-old kids learning to drive and other vulnerable people,” the statement read in part, going on to say, “We expect Pam Bondi’s worthless, publicity-driven lawsuit to be a total failure, just like all the others. Let me be clear: New York is not backing down.”
“Our state laws, including the Green Light law, protect the rights of all New Yorkers and keep our communities safe. I am prepared to defend our laws, just as I always have,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is also named in the suit.
The lawsuit prompted Hochul to cancel a scheduled lunch with President Trump.
“When I saw that his attorney general at her very first press conference stood up and challenged me directly, accusing me, saying that, charging me, which infers that I committed a crime, and charges our attorney general and my commissioner of the DMV, I called up and said I will not be coming there,” Hochul said. “I’ll meet you next week when I come with the National Governor’s Association. He agreed that would be fine. I did not want to go down there and give any credibility to this brazen attempt to have our laws that were duly enacted by elected people of the state of New York undermined by the federal government.”
New York’s Green Light Law previously came under fire during Mr. Trump’s first term, when the Department of Homeland Security temporarily suspended New York from the Global Entry program.
What other states have these laws?
Similar laws are in place across California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington, which has the oldest one.
The Washington law dates back to 1993 and it allows people without Social Security numbers to use alternative documents, like a utility bill or a tax identification number, to show proof of residence.
In 2023, Minnesota enacted the most recent of these laws, impacting approximately 81,000 people. While the state does not ask for proof of U.S. citizenship or permanent residence status, applicants must provide identifying documents, like an unexpired foreign passport or foreign birth certificate. Under the law, Minnesota Department of Public Safety officials do not submit the names or personal information of applicants to immigration law enforcement.
