Editor’s Note: Click here (https://youtu.be/FZ907KKStZQ) for a video clip of Assemblyman Manktelow’s interview for immediate use

Assemblyman Brian Manktelow (R,C,I,Ref-Lyons) joined colleagues from the Assembly, Senate and U.S. Congress on Monday, February 24 for a press conference regarding the dangers posed by the new Green Light Law (A.3675B) to federal and local law enforcement and the public as a whole. The legislation originally granted people who are in the country illegally to obtain a New York state driver’s licenses. With this, Gov. Cuomo has threatened to revoke local law enforcement’s access to the DMV database for fear it would be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and result in illegal immigrants from being detained and deported.

“We are not allowing New York to be as safe as it can be, which in a post 9/11 world, is heartbreaking,” said Manktelow. “We’ve been told that 70 percent of Joint Terrorism Task Force disruptions stem from arrests for immigration violations. Between this and bail reform, it is horrible that this administration is so pro-criminal and not concerned with the safety of law-abiding citizens. Just like bail reform, we are willing to sit down to come to a better compromise that doesn’t put our communities at risk. Being a representative for a part of the state which borders Canada, I am especially concerned by this legislation. We need to stop digging a deeper hole and destroying our state with such harmful pieces of legislation.”