New York is already getting sued by the Trump administration for prioritizing illegal aliens over the safety of Americans. Get ready for New York City to be slammed with similar suits.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul blusters that the legal action is a "worthless, publicity-driven lawsuit" that will "be a total failure." Hochul insists "New York is not backing not down."
She's dead wrong about the merits of the lawsuit. It's a slam dunk.
The state and its top Democrats are being sued over the Green Light Law, a brainchild of New York Attorney General Letitia James and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It was passed and signed into law by Cuomo in 2019 to allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses without having to worry that their information could be accessed by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The law prohibits federal law enforcement from using the Department of Motor Vehicles database to see an individual's picture, address or immigration status, unless they get a warrant or court order, a time-consuming process. It's impossible during a traffic stop, for example.
Here's the biggest outrage: The Green Light Law says DMV employees "shall" tip off anyone under investigation within three days -- giving them a heads-up to abscond. Nineteen states allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, but no other state law has this tip-off provision. It turns the DMV into an accomplice for criminals.
Announcing the lawsuit on Feb. 12, newly minted U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stood with an "angel mom" whose daughter had been raped and murdered by an MS-13 gang member. Bondi accused the state of deliberately obstructing federal efforts to round up and deport illegals with criminal records or arrests, in violation of the U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause and a new federal law.
On Jan. 29, President Donald Trump signed into law the Laken Riley Act, which mandates that any illegal alien convicted of theft, burglary or crimes that cause death or bodily injury will be detained and deported on release from prison. That can only happen if ICE knows the criminal is being released.
"At last count we had almost 600,000 illegal aliens in the United States with a criminal conviction. I won't be happy" until they're removed, said border czar Tom Homan on Monday.
That's where Bondi comes in. On Feb. 6, she sued the city of Chicago, Cook County and the state of Illinois for "affirmatively thwarting" the enforcement of federal immigration law, resulting in "countless criminals being released into Chicago" who should have been removed from the United States. She cited local and state laws that make it a crime for government employees to share information with ICE.
A long line of Supreme Court litigation says that the federal government cannot "commandeer" state and local employees to do the feds' jobs for them. She will have to prove that local and state authorities are not just sitting on their hands. They are actively working to defeat federal law.
New York City will likely face a similar lawsuit if Homan isn't happy with the cooperation he's been promised by Mayor Eric Adams. And it's unlikely that Adams can deliver. On Feb. 13, Homan told me Adams promised not only to provide an ICE "presence" at Rikers Island but to do other things that he can't make public, because the City Council would object.
Give the mayor a medal. He's being pilloried by his own party for playing ball with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement. But public sentiment is fully behind him. Nearly 72% of New York City residents polled by the Manhattan Institute want the city to cooperate with federal officials to deport illegals who have committed crimes.
ICE says there are over 58,000 illegal migrants wandering city streets who are convicted felons or face criminal charges.
Yet New York Democrats are battling to protect them. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's office held a webinar on how to evade ICE. City Council members are introducing legislation to allow New Yorkers to sue any city agency that cooperates with ICE. And Albany lawmakers are offering legislation to bar ICE from schools or shelters without a court order.
It's madness. The public loses safety, and the state and cash-strapped city potentially lose billions in federal funds by warring against the White House.
New York is not a sovereign nation. It is part of the United States and needs to behave that way, obeying the U.S. Constitution.
Bondi delivered that message in court. Voters need to deliver it at the ballot box.
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