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BRETT A. SHUMATE
Acting Assistant Attorney General
Civil Division
DREW C. ENSIGN
Deputy Assistant Attorney General
AUGUST FLENTJE
Deputy Director
EREZ REUVENI
Assistant Director
Office of Immigration Litigation
ERIC HAMILTON
Deputy Assistant Attorney General
ALEXANDER K. HAAS
Director
JACQUELINE COLEMAN SNEAD
Assistant Director
CRISTEN C. HANDLEY
ELISABETH J. NEYLAN
Trial Attorneys
Federal Programs Branch
Attorneys for the United States
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
(Albany Division)
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff,
v.
STATE OF NEW YORK; KATHLEEN HOCHUL, Governor of New York, in her Official Capacity; LETITIA A. JAMES, Attorney General of New York, in her Official Capacity; MARK J.F. SCHROEDER, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, in his Official Capacity.
Defendants.
No. ________
COMPLAINT
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INTRODUCTION
1.
The United States is currently facing a crisis of illegal immigration.
See, e.g.
, Proclamation 10,866,
Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States
, 90 Fed. Reg. 8327 (Jan. 20, 2025). And the Federal Government is set to put a stop to it. While States are welcome partners in that effort, it is their prerogative as separate sovereigns to refrain. But a State’s freedom to stand aside is not a freedom to stand in the way. And where inaction crosses into obstruction, a State breaks the law. The State of New York is doing just that. It must be stopped.
2.
In 2019, New York amended its Vehicle and Traffic Law to include a provision known as the “Green Light Law.”
See
N.Y. Veh. & Traf. § 201.12. The Green Light Law generally bars the sharing of New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (“DMV”) records or information (
e.g.
, addresses, vehicle registrations, identification photos) with federal immigration agencies.
See id.
§ 201.12(a). And it requires New York’s DMV Commissioner to promptly tip off any illegal alien when a federal immigration agency has requested his or her information.
See
§ 201.12(b)
.
As its supporters and sponsors made clear, the Green Light Law was passed to directly impair the enforcement of the federal immigration laws in New York. And those lawmakers have achieved their objective.
3.
DMV information is critical to federal immigration agencies—in particular their ability to identify and remove those who are here illegally. As important, DMV information is critical to keeping federal immigration officers safe. From vehicle stops to border crossings to executing arrests and searches, immigration authorities depend on these records to assess real-time the situations they face and the people they encounter. But New York’s Green Light Law deprives
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them of this insight; and in turn, unnecessarily forces brave law enforcement officers into dangerous and uncertain circumstances.
4.
law designed to ensure that “information of undocumented immigrants . . . will be protected” from federal immigration authorities.
But the Constitution sees things differently. New York’s Green Light Law violates the Supremacy Clause at every turn.
5.
Foremost, federal immigration law expressly preempts state and local laws that restrict sharing information with the Federal Government “regarding the immigration status . . . of any individual.”
See
8 U.S.C. § 1373(a). But that is
exactly
what the Green Light Law does. 6.
Moreover, under conflict preemption principles, a State cannot fashion “an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives” of the federal immigration laws.
Arizona v. United States
, 567 U.S. 387, 399 (2012) (quoting
Hines v. Davidowitz
, 312 U.S. 52, 67 (1941)). But again, that is the
entire point
behind the Green Light Law—impeding the Federal Government’s ability to learn and share valuable information to remove illegal aliens. 7.
Further, well-established principles of intergovernmental immunity prohibit a State from directly regulating or discriminating against the Federal Government. Yet here too, the Green Light Law does so
on its face
. The Law directly regulates the Federal Government’s own operations: Even in the narrow circumstances where one part of the Government is given access
1
See
Office of the New York State Attorney General,
Attorney General James’ Statement on Green Light Bill
(June 17, 2019), https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2019/attorney-general-james-statement-green-light-bill.
2
See
Spectrum News,
New York AG James Committed to Defending Green Light Bill
(Aug. 5, 2019), https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2019/08/05/letitia-james-interview-green-light-bill.
