New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law on Monday that allows illegal immigrants to obtain a state driver’s license. The Democrat-controlled Senate in Albany approved the measure 33-29. The bill had already passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly. New York is not the only state that grants illegal immigrants driver’s licenses, there are at least one dozen more that also do.
Many Republicans in New York opposed the measure, which was passed after Republican President Donald Trump moved to crack down on illegal immigration on several fronts.
New York Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy in a statement said the bill was one of several measures demonstrating the state’s Democrats “are in lockstep with leftist radicals and could care less about the priorities of taxpaying New Yorkers.”
Cuomo was initially worried that the licenses would create a databases of illegal immigrants but the governor’s legal counsel, Alphonso David, assured him the bill had safeguards to prevent the information from being used to locate the undocumented immigrants. The bill will take effect by the end of the year.
“In a time when immigrants’ rights and livelihoods are being severely threatened, the Green Light Bill is a clear message that we New Yorkers will always choose to lead with courage and love and to fight for everyone’s right to the American Dream,” New York state Senator Luis Sepúlveda said. The Senator said it will also help illegal immigrants by allowing them to drive to school.
Reuters wants you to know that after California enacted a similar bill “hit-and-run accidents decreased after illegal immigrants were granted driver’s licenses beginning in 2015, according to a study by Stanford University researchers that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2017.”
The study suggested that before illegal immigrants were allowed to get driver’s licenses, they were likely to flee the scene of a hit-and-run for fear their car would be impounded.
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