Hundreds pack Queens DMVs as state allows licenses for undocumented immigrants
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The Green Light Law allows undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses and permits. Hundreds of newly eligible New Yorkers visited DMV Offices in Jamaica, Flushing and Jackson Heights (pictured) to apply for their licenses Monday. Photo via Make the Road
By David Brand
The line at the Department of Motor Vehicle in Jamaica was even longer than usual Monday morning, as hundreds of noncitizens packed the second-floor office to apply for driver’s licenses and learner’s permits under a new law that lifts a prohibition on licenses for undocumented immigrants.
The Green Light Law, which allows New York residents over age 16 to apply for drivers licenses or permits regardless of their immigration status, withstood court challenges and took effect Monday.
“It’s an opportunity. It’s better for work,” said Denis, a 42-year-old restaurant worker from Honduras. He filled out his application in the hallway outside the DMV office and asked not to have his last name published because he is undocumented
The law will enable roughly 700,000 undocumented immigrants like Denis to apply for licenses, according to the immigrants rights organization Make the Road New York.
By 10 a.m. Monday, the line of Jamaica applicants coiled along the green- and white-linoleum-tiled floors in the DMV office and reached the glass front doors. A few would-be applicants looked at the line, turned around and left.
“This is nowhere near normal,” said one of three security guards handing out applications. “It’s calm though.”
Roberto, a construction worker who moved from Guatemala two years ago, stood just outside the office debating whether he would brave the line. Eventually, he entered the office after explaining how a drivers license will allow him to get to job sites throughout the Tri-state area.
“I’m happy because I got my license a long time ago [in Guatemala], but I couldn’t drive here,” Roberto said in Spanish. “Now I can get my license, get a car and I don’t have to take the bus to work.”
“I won’t have to wait a half hour in the cold.”
The Jamaica DMV was jam-packed by 10 a.m. Monday morning. Eagle photos by David Brand
Hundreds of other Queens residents lined up around the block outside the DMV in Flushing, while Make the Road hosted an event at a DMV in Jackson Heights.
Several Queens leaders have championed the Green Light Law, even as upstate county clerks challenged the legality of the measure in court. A judge dismissed their lawsuit Friday, allowing the law to proceed.
“New York’s Green Light law, which allows undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers licenses, will make our roads safer, help build a stronger and more inclusive economy, and bring immigrants across the state out of the shadows,” wrote Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, the county’s district attorney-elect, in a September op-ed for the Eagle.
Many immigrants did come out on Monday — so many, in fact, that three people told the Eagle they would return later in the week, when the crowds subsided.
“I left because there were too many people,” said Rojas, a 17-year-old who moved from Mexico 10 years ago. He visited the DMV with his mother and two younger siblings.
“We’ll come back tomorrow.”
