In the state of New York, beginning next week, illegal immigrants will be able to get a driver’s license.
Earlier this year Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill titled The Green Light Law which will allow anyone, including illegal immigrants, to apply for a drivers license as long as they have the proper documentation.
According to Fox News,
Illegal immigrants can use a combination of documents that include a valid passport from a foreign country and a valid foreign driver’s license, as long as it has been expired for less than two years.
“This is a major step forward for all New Yorkers as we keep building New York to live up to its full potential of equity, opportunity and justice,” said State Sen. Luis Sepúlveda (D-Bronx). “We also look forward to the significant economic and safety benefits the law will bring to communities across our state.”
New York citizens and clerks are very concerned about what may result from this new law. The bill has been challenged with multiple lawsuits but to no avail.
Erie County Clerk Michael Kearns had this to say on the matter, “My concern is that, after 9/11, New York state put a prohibition on illegals having driving licenses and now with REAL ID in 2005 after we were attacked there will be a gap from today to Oct. 1 that anyone who is here illegally can get into a federal building and can fly on our airplanes and cross our border.”
He then adds, “I am now going to have to accept a report card from a foreign country and … a foreign passport as authenticated documents. I myself as the clerk am going to have to do that. We used to have to rely on a third party, the fed government, to do that so they have diminished a New York driver’s license, and we are very concerned for our safety and security because western New York is a border to Canada.”
