Statement From Senate Republican Leader Flanagan

I commend Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns for his leadership in filing a federal lawsuit challenging a law passed by Democrats in Albany that would give New York driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. This is an important and necessary lawsuit, and I wish him well.

The truth is that this misguided and dangerous law never should have been enacted in the first place. Democrats, especially those who represent the suburbs and Upstate New York, ignored the overwhelming majority of their own constituents who strongly opposed this policy.

The bill Democrats approved last month to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses rewards lawbreakers and flouts federal law by preventing legitimate immigration enforcement, which the Senate sponsor bragged about on the very same night the bill was taken up by our chamber.

In just six months, Senate and Assembly Democrats have showered illegal immigrants with free college tuition and free legal assistance, and some are pushing to give them free health care too. Worst of all, Democrats granted New York driver’s licenses to people who are here illegally. It’s wrong, it’s illegal, and the Courts have an obligation to step in and stop it from happening.