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.
WKBW first reported that the law, which went into effect in January and primarily allows illegal immigrants to receive driver’s licenses, was amended as part of the state’s 2020 budget and signed by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo in April.
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. – READ MORE
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