FLEOA Condemns Dangerous ‘Green Light
Laws’ in New York, New Jersey
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 18, 2019
WASHINGTON, DC – Larry Cosme, National President of the Federal Law
Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA), today issued the following statement in
response to New York’s Green Light law and similar laws passed in New Jersey.
"We agree with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and several New
York State County Clerk’s assessment that New York’s Green Light laws do
nothing more than protect narcotics and human traffickers and other violent
criminals. Part of our nationally agreed-upon immigration enforcement strategy,
even under the Obama administration, was to prioritize the identification of
illegal aliens who commit violent crimes,” Cosme said.
"New York, and now New Jersey, have not only blocked that effort but are also
conspiring to protect criminals by accepting unverifiable foreign documents for
identification. It is highly unlikely that anyone in either state’s DMVs knows what
a driver’s license issued in Swaziland looks like or how it should be verified. This
is just one example of the dangerous gamble these states are taking,” Cosme
furthered. "This is unsafe. For two states repeatedly targeted by foreign
terrorists, whose responses were coordinated by federal law enforcement and
have benefited from DHS grants and resources, to implement these laws shows a
lack of gratitude and utter contempt for federal law enforcement- the support
structure that has routinely bailed each state out of crisis without question.”
Cosme concluded, "Both states should repeal these laws or at least amend them
to ensure federal law enforcement can access DMV records to continue to keep
Americans living in those states safe.”
FLEOA is the nation’s largest non-partisan, not-for-profit professional association
representing more than 27,000 federal law enforcement officers and agents across 65
federal agencies.