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Left: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul at a news conference in Long Island on Feb. 12, 2025 (YouTube). Right: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announces lawsuit against New York’s immigration policies from Washington, D.C. on Feb. 12, 2025 (YouTube).
While the Trump administration has been targeted by a flurry of lawsuits challenging executive orders, firings, and other actions, the president’s Justice Department went on the offensive Wednesday with newly-confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi announcing she was suing New York over its immigration laws.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, accuses the Empire State of unconstitutionally obstructing the federal government’s crackdown on illegal immigration, which was one of the pillars of President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The complaint focuses on New York’s 2019 Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act, which is also known as the “Green Light Law.” The measure allows immigrants in the country illegally to obtain driver’s licenses while also prohibiting sheriff’s offices in the state from providing federal immigration agencies with data from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.
The licenses issued under the law are drive-only, meaning that the holders of such licenses understand traffic laws and can properly operate a vehicle. The licenses cannot be used for other purposes, such as registering to vote.
The suit also claims that the law “requires” the DMV commissioner to ” promptly tip off any illegal alien when a federal immigration agency has requested his or her information.”
“The United States is currently facing a crisis of illegal immigration,” the complaint states, citing to the executive order Trump signed on his first day in office. “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.”
Bondi announced the lawsuit during a press conference on Wednesday where she was flanked by several federal law enforcement agents and claimed she had “filed charges” against New York’s governmental leaders. The filing was not a criminal complaint and did not contain criminal charges.
“We’re here today because we have filed charges against the state of New York,” Bondi said from the podium in Washington, D.C. “We have filed charges against Kathy Hochul. We have filed charges against Letitia James and Mark Schroeder.”
Bondi did not make the civil complaint immediately available to the public, but it was later revealed that Hochul, James and Schroeder were merely named as defendants in the civil suit.
“They’re giving a green light to any illegal alien in New York, where law enforcement officers cannot check their identity if they pull them over; law enforcement officers do not have access to their background, and if these great men and women pull over someone and don’t have access to their background they have no idea who they’re dealing with,” Bondi said. “Violent criminals, gang members, drug traffickers, human smugglers will no longer terrorize the American people, and that is why we are here today.”
The AG noted that the administration had already sued Illinois over a similar law, saying, “New York didn’t listen. So now, you’re next.
James and Hochul were both quick to respond to the administration.
“Our state laws, including the Green Light law, protect the rights of all New Yorkers and keep our communities safe. I am prepared to defend our laws, just as I always have,” James said in a statement following Bondi’s news conference.
Hochul had far stronger words for the administration and Bondi in particular.
“Earlier today, Attorney General Pam Bondi marched in front of the television cameras for a dramatic media briefing to announce she was filing charges against New York State related to our immigration laws,” she said. “Hours later, when legal papers were shared with reporters, we learned this was smoke and mirrors: the Department of Justice was filing a routine civil action about a law passed in 2019 that has been upheld by the courts time and again.”
According to Hochul, the state law allows federal officials to access DMV data with a warrant, adding that she would not allow federal agents or “Elon Musk’s shadowy DOGE operation” to have “unfettered access to the personal data of any New Yorker.”
“We expect Pam Bondi’s worthless, publicity-driven lawsuit to be a total failure, just like all the others,” the governor concluded. “Let me be clear: New York is not backing down.”
