Trump Administration Attorney General Pam Bondi recently sued the state of New York and its top officials, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul, for prioritizing illegal immigrants over the safety of American citizens. Legal analyst and former Lieutenant Governor of New York Betsy McCaughey said the case should be a “slam dunk.”
The lawsuit stems from the state’s Green Light Law, developed by Letitia James and former Governor Andrew Cuomo, which allows illegal immigrants in New York to obtain driver’s licenses without fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials accessing their information. As expected, New York has vowed to fight back against the legal action, but McCaughey maintains this will be a losing fight for the state officials.
McCaughey weighed in on the case brought forth by Bondi in a New York Post opinion piece this past week. The analyst directly confronted Gov. Hocul’s claims that the lawsuit from Bondi will be a “total failure.” Pushing back, McCaughey wrote, “Hochul is dead wrong about the merits of the lawsuit. It’s a slam dunk for the Justice Department under the letter of the US Constitution.”
Criticizing the New York law, she added, “Here’s the biggest outrage: The Green Light Law says DMV employees “shall,” within three days, notify license-holders when law enforcement does view their records — tipping them off to the investigation and giving them time to abscond. Nineteen states allow illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses, but no other state has such a tip-off provision. It turns the DMV into an accomplice for criminals.”
McCaughey further claimed that New York is “deliberately obstructing” federal efforts to detain and deport illegal immigrants into the United States. “New York is not a sovereign nation. It is part of the United States and needs to behave that way, obeying the US Constitution. Bondi is delivering that message in court. Voters need to deliver it at the ballot box,” she concluded.
Bondi released a statement earlier this month, explaining the lawsuit the Department of Justice brought against the state of New York over immigration enforcement. “We sued Illinois, and New York didn’t listen, so now, you’re next,” the attorney general said. “We are taking steps to protect Americans,” adding that “New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens.”
Letitia James responding to the lawsuit, defending the Green Light Law that has faced intense scrutiny. “Our state laws, including the Green Light law, protect the rights of all New Yorkers and keep our communities safe. I am prepared to defend our laws, just as I always have,” she said.
"*" indicates required fields
Similarly, Kathy Hochul also slammed the suit from Bondi. “There’s no way I’m letting federal agents, or Elon Musk’s shadowy DOGE operation, get unfettered access to the personal data of any New Yorker in the DMV system like 16-year-old kids learning to drive and other vulnerable people,” Hochul said in a statement. “We expect Pam Bondi’s worthless, publicity-driven lawsuit to be a total failure, just like all the others. Let me be clear: New York is not backing down,” Hochul continued.
Watch Bondi speak about the lawsuit below:
Featured image credit: United States Department of Justice, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pam_Bondi_in_2025_(cropped).jpg