How to resolve AdBlock issue? SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga County Clerk Craig Hayner led more than 35 County Clerks from New York’s 62 counties in sending a letter to President Donald Trump on June 24 requesting the Justice Department look into the constitutionality of New York’s Green Light Law.
On June 17, New York became the 13th state to pass a Green Light Law, officially called the Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act, with a vote of 33-29 in favor of allowing undocumented immigrants to legally obtain driver’s licenses. If unchallenged, the law would come into effect Dec. 14 of this year.
Hayner said that the other 12 states to pass a Green Light Law are far more stringent in allowing undocumented immigrants to drive. Those states specifically say on their identification ‘Not for identification purposes’ in big bold letters. Their ID is a license to drive, but nothing else.
In the letter, Hayner attached the Clerks’ position statement, detailing six months of research into the various issues with the law, such as going against previously established laws like Cubas v. Martinez, which allows DMVs to require driver’s license applicants to show their Social Security card.
Julie Novkov, professor of Political Science at UAlbany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, said that like many other states, New York is currently on a three-tier license system using standard licenses, Real IDs and Enhanced licenses.
The standard license is for photo identification and allows boarding of a domestic flight through October 1, 2020.
The Real ID has higher requirements, such as a valid license, birth certificate or passport and proof of date of birth, and allows for domestic flights.
The enhanced license (permit, or non-driver ID) is a New York State DMV issued document that can be used instead of a passport to return to the US from Canada, Mexico and some countries in the Caribbean.
Under the new law, Novkov said that instead of showing a Social Security card, immigrants in New York could “show a valid passport, a consular ID from another country or a valid driver’s license from another country, and then they will also have to present an affidavit saying that they are not eligible for a Social Security number in the United States.”
Hayner said that the Clerks’ main concern was in confirming that people are who they say they are.
“Identification is the key,” he said. “When our DMV Clerk receives a person that’s here legally, they’re a guest or they want to get
a license and they’re eligible to get a license, maybe they have a driver’s license in Jamaica, it makes them eligible here, after a certain amount of time that they’re here they can get a license.”
Under the Green Light Law, Hayner said that “a person can actually come into our DMV, present a foreign passport and then sign an affidavit claiming to be somebody that we have no idea if it really is that person.”
One of the other concerns the Clerks’ position statement raised was allowing for potential voter fraud due to every transaction requiring the customer to confirm whether they are a citizen and if they would like to register to vote, regardless of the customer’s citizenship, status or age.
“The potential loophole is there. We don’t believe people would intentionally do that.” Hayner said. “When a person goes through that process, it automatically asks them ‘are you a citizen?’ and ‘would you like to register to vote?’”
Hayner said that this happens even for legal guests, and that he believes the system should handle the questions automatically, and only ask the customer if they would like to register to vote if they are eligible.
“In order for an undocumented person to register to vote, the person would have to provide the driver’s license and provide basically a fake Social Security number,” Novkov said. “So technically it would be possible, but you also have to swear you are a citizen when you register to vote, so the way that this generally works is that if someone is found to be trying to vote fraudulently, that person can be subjected to both state and federal penalties, including for an undocumented person the threat is that you can be deported.”
Assemblyperson Carrie Woerner, who voted against the bill, said that “when you get a diver’s license now, you check a box if you don’t want to be registered to vote.”
She added that for some numberofpeoplegettingdriver’s licenses, “they’re not eligible to vote, but they don’t do the whole check or not check the box correctly, so they end up on the voter rolls even though they don’t intend to vote, they didn’t mean to say that wanted to vote, they don’t show up to vote, necessarily, but they’re on the voter rolls.”
She also said that “there’s a fairly strong argument, and the business council made this argument, that people who are here, whether they’re here legally or not, are largely working, and they need to be able to get to work. They’re an important part of our economy, so transportation is a key part of being able to keep a job and work a job.”
Terry Diggory, one of the Coordinators of the Saratoga Immigration Coalition, said that the Coalition was “one of three organizations within the capital region that were the regional coordinators for the Green Light campaign.”
Diggory said that until now, undocumented immigrants have previously had to rely mainly on public transit and ride sharing services, like Uber and Lyft, which can get expensive quickly.
“The Saratoga Immigration Coalition helps to run a low- income transportation service,” Diggory said. The service uses a team of volunteers who offer rides as needed, but the issue is for emergency cases.
“Somebody who gets a call from their child’s school saying, ‘your child is sick, come pick them up’ there’s an emergency need,” he said. “That’s a case where if they can they would arrange a Lyft or an Uber or a Taxi, which again gets very expensive.”
Diggory said that for the Coalition, it is a matter of practicality, not symbolism.
He added “If you’ve got... as many as one million undocumented immigrants in the state, they’re here. You’re not going to round up one million immigrants and deport them.” He concluded, “So the question from a practical standpoint is what’s the best way of accommodating their presence in the community, for their lives and for the safety of the community as a whole?”
