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BUFFALO, N.Y. — In 2019, New York state lawmakers passed what is known as the Green Light Law, allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.
But in order to ensure the federal government didn’t then target those individuals for deportation, the state restricted federal access to DMV records and prohibited local law enforcement from sharing certain information with immigration authorities.
State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, has long been a critic of the measure.
"You’re making the job of law enforcement less safe and you’re doing so for one purpose and that is to protect people in the country illegally who may already be suspected of another crime or have come into police contact."
President-elect Donald Trump has named upstate native Tom Homan as his border czar. Homan recently told The Buffalo News the law needs to change and did not deny the possibility the federal government could block vehicles with New York license plates from entering the country from Canada in the meantime.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-NY, responded Monday.
"That would be bizarre to me that anyone thinks that stopping our vehicles from coming in and out of our country, keeping New Yorkers in a foreign country is a smart path forward. I’d like to sit down and have that conversation," she said.
Western New York U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-NY-23, said he has not talked specifically with Homan about blocking New York border access but says he also plans on using any leverage he has to get the state to change its law, including Congress potentially withholding federal funds.
"While that proposal, that seems to be an extreme measure, I don’t know what it has got to be to make Kathy Hochul and the officials in Albany to wake up that we’ve got a real crisis on our hands," Langworthy said.
Ortt said there is precedent from the pandemic with regards to both the United States and Canada restricting northern border access.
"All we’re asking for, all Homan is asking for is for the state of New York to allow local law enforcement to work with federal law enforcement, federal immigration authorities. That should not be a big ask but in 2025 in New York it is."
