Legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses in New York was said to be constitutional in a statement from the state Attorney General's Office, which cleared its way to becoming law following final passage from state lawmakers on Monday.

After passing the state Senate Monday evening by a razor-thin margin, the bill was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It had already been approved in the State Assembly.

“Governor Cuomo has supported this policy for over a decade. The key to this bill is not the political intent but the legal effect,” said Alphonso David, counsel to the governor. “We hope the Attorney General's assessment is correct for the safety of the thousands of undocumented individuals who are relying on her legal opinion.”

David also took a dig at New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood, who Cuomo had said earlier in the day he would ask to review the legislation to see if it could put the identifying information of those individuals at risk.

“The solicitor general, a former federal prosecutor and former acting U.S. solicitor general, who presumably knows whether or not the relevant information can be safeguarded, has remained unresponsive on this critical issue,” David said.

The statement capped off a day of confusion over the legislation, which Cuomo has previously said he supports and would sign if approved by lawmakers. That seemed to change early Monday when Cuomo said during a radio interview that he would seek Underwood's opinion on the legislation before he signs it into law.

But Attorney General Letitia James, in a statement issued hours later just before the Senate approved the bill, gave it her blessing on constitutional grounds.

“I support the Green Light bill, and the Office of Attorney General has concluded that it is constitutional. We will not opine on any actions the federal government may or may not take,” James said. “The legislation is well crafted and contains ample protections for those who apply for driver's licenses. If this bill is enacted and challenged in court, we will vigorously defend it.”

The statement was accompanied by a memo from Assistant Solicitor General Kathryn Sheingold, who concluded the bill had appropriate protections for the identifying information of immigrants who apply for a driver's license and was otherwise constitutionally sound.

“After a review of the concerns expressed in the press and likely challenges following from them, we have identified no reason to doubt that the proposed legislation is constitutionally and legally sound,” Sheingold wrote.

She noted language in the bill that would prevent federal immigration officials from accessing the identifying information of applicants. They would need either a lawful court order, a warrant signed by a federal judge or a subpoena for individual records, according to the bill.

The memo, notably, was sent to James on Friday. That was before Cuomo said Monday morning that he would be requesting a review of the legislation from Underwood.

As such, the analysis is broader than what Cuomo requested. She wrote, for example, that the bill would not be preempted by federal law because lawmakers weren't trying to set any kind of immigration policy. The measure would, instead, provide a different class of driver's licenses to applicants, Sheingold wrote.

“With respect to immigration, New York, through the DMV, will not be making immigration decisions with respect to applicants for a driver's license or classifying immigrants based on their documents,” Sheingold wrote. “It will be issuing a license to drive, the particular form of license based on what records the applicant supplies in support of his or her application.”

Sheingold wrote that her review of the bill was requested by state Sen. Luis Sepulveda, a Democrat from the Bronx who sponsors the legislation. Sepulveda, when asked about Cuomo's request earlier in the day, said the concerns over identifying information were never mentioned to him or other supporters of the bill before Monday.

“I don't know what the governor's motivation is. I can tell you we commenced these questions with the governor's office back in January and none of these concerns were relayed to us,” Sepulveda said. “Why now? I don't know, you'd have to ask the governor.”

Cuomo had said during the radio interview Monday morning that he was concerned the bill may create a pool of information that officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could use to target immigrants for deportation. He had previously said he supports the legislation.

“We have to write a law that does not have an unintended consequence. That's what the smart people are worried about,” Cuomo said. “In other words, you could be creating a database for the feds to use to actually track down undocumented people. That's the balance; this is a legal question more than anything else.”

That issue wasn't addressed at length in Sheingold's memo, but she did mention that the data would be kept confidential, minus an order from the court.

Supporters of the legislation, who were in Albany to push the bill across the finish line Monday, were critical of Cuomo's comments, noting that the bill already has strong measures to protect the information of applicants. Murad Awawdeh of the New York Immigration Coalition said the bill would actually create a more secure program than in other states that have taken similar action.

“The Green Light NY bill has the strongest data protections in the bill than any other state that has given undocumented folks the right to drive,” Awawdeh said.

Officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not be able to use an administrative warrant to obtain identifying information from the state Department of Motor Vehicles, for example. That warrant would have to come from a judge.

The DMV also would not retain copies of any source documents used by immigrants who apply for a license, Awawdeh said. The agency also wouldn't be allowed to ask about citizenship or immigration status of applicants, which would theoretically protect individuals from federal officials.

The legislation could face a legal challenge in the future, though James said her office is prepared to defend it if that happens.

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