New York’s controversial “Green Light Law” went into effect in January primarily allows illegal immigrants to receive driver’s licenses.
The recent change means that state officials who share illegal immigrants’ driver data with federal immigration enforcement agencies could face a felony charge.
The difference between the original law and the amendment is that the original 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), while the new amendment goes even further and makes it a class E felony for officials to share the information.
But law enforcement groups and federal immigration agencies have furiously opposed the legislation.
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.
