GreenLight New York (GLNY) is recent legislation that has granted migrants, in the country illegally, the privilege to obtain a New York State driver’s license. Seven Hundred Fifty Two Thousand (752,000) illegal migrants already living in New York State will be eligible to obtain a driver’s license according to the GreenLight project’s website.
The definition of madness is behavior or thinking that is very foolish or dangerous.
GLNY is scary-dangerous. The idea of issuing drivers licenses to hundreds of thousands of people who entered the country illegally and whose identities we have little real capability to verify, defies logic. It is truly madness.
Greenlight NY is now the law of the land. Passed June 18 in Albany by a Democratic-controlled Senate, a Democratic-controlled Assembly and of course Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo. It goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020.
A driver’s license is a gateway document. A driver’s license for an illegal immigrant opens the doors to obtaining additional rights or privileges that until now had been reserved for legal residents, including the right to vote.
In response to concerns that the New York State legislation granting migrants, in the country illegally, the privilege to obtain a New York State driver’s license, and with it the right to vote, Buffalo News reports: “Senator Luis Sepulveda, a Bronx Democrat and the bill’s sponsor, said “theoretically” that some migrants might try to use licenses to register to vote, but called the worry about voter fraud ‘a fantasy.’ ”
Sen. Sepulveda said such migrants trying to vote would be breaking New York State’s election laws.
Seriously. We should be reassured that individuals, who demonstrate with 100-percent consistency, a willingness to break the law by illegally entering and continuing to remain in the country, will restrain themselves from violating New York State Election Law?
The New York Post reports:
“The Green Light bill, which passed the Senate 33-29 Monday and was signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, allows illegal immigrants to obtain “standard” state driver’s licenses that can be used for identification and to board domestic flights.
“But it is also the sole document required to register to vote, according to officials.
“Even legislative sponsor Luis Sepúlveda (D-Bronx) admitted the provision could be abused.
“ ‘Theoretically, they could have the ability to vote,’ he said while arguing for the bill during a Monday hearing in Albany.
“Voters need only provide a driver’s license number to register to vote, according to BOE spokesman John Conklin.
“ ‘If you have a driver’s license number, you basically stop there,’ Conklin told the Post Tuesday of the vetting process.
“Registrants are required to check a box swearing they are eligible to vote in the US, but ‘it’s basically an honor system,’ he said.
“The state DMV said it provides voter registration applications to customers and sends them to the Board of Elections but has no role in vetting applications.”
Madness.
The only protection against hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants registering to vote will be their personal assurance they won’t break the law by swearing they won’t check a box saying they are eligible to vote in the U.S. The scale of the potential election fraud GLNY introduces should in and of itself be enough to cause a rational individual to recoil at the madness of the legislation.
We hear 12 other states are already issuing driver’s licenses to illegal migrants. That’s misleading. All of them have implemented different migrant ID plans and none with the full extent of benefits and privileges that GreenLight New York provides.
Most of the 12 states, issue an ID which is distinctly different from an official state driver’s license. It provides the migrant with a legal way to satisfy transportation needs, but prevents much of the fraud that will be taking place in New York with the issuance of an actual state driver’s license.
New Mexico has spent the last five years trying to repeal their version of New York’s GreenLight legislation. According to International Business Times, New Mexico’s Gov. Susana Martinez’s spokesman, Mike Lonergan, said “she still sides with an overwhelming majority of New Mexicans who believe we must repeal the dangerous law of giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, which has turned our state into a magnet for criminal activity.” Last year, federal investigators ended a five-year illegal operation in which immigrants from Georgia were paying upward of $2,000 for fake documents to procure driver’s licenses in New Mexico.
Opposition to GLNY is not xenophobic as Sen. Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat, tried to claim. It is an expression of outrage. A demand for sanity from the vast majority of everyday New Yorkers outraged at Governor Cuomo’s and the State Legislature’s complete disregard for the principles of fair play and the rule of law.
America is a nation of immigrants. We have successfully embraced and mixed more cultures than any other nation on earth. Until now, citizenship meant something. It had great value. Achieving citizenship in America has been a source of pride and sense of achievement for many generations of legal immigrants. GreenLight New York obliterates the value of citizenship and it will extinguish the pride derived from it.
America is a nation of laws. Fair play and the rule of law are foundational principles of the idea that is America. GreenLight New York flips both principles on their ear.
It’s not difficult to imagine an unintended consequence of GLNY will be increased racial tensions as law abiding, U.S.-born and legally immigrated citizen resentment grows as a result of the special treatment this law affords those who have a demonstrated disregard for the laws of the nation.
Governor Cuomo and the legislators who passed this legislative abomination have demonstrated a wanton disregard for the rights and well-being of all legal American citizens not just New Yorkers.
Greenlight New York must be repealed before its Jan. 1 effective date, before the damage it is sure to inflict begins.
Doug Rosenbrock lives in Riverhead.
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