Pam Bondi files lawsuits against New York, Gov. Hochul, and AG Letitia James for ‘shielding’ illegal immigrants

Brand new Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Wednesday at a powerful press conference further legal action against New York, its top officials and the head of the state's Department of Motor Vehicles for going against the Department of Justice and failing to enforce immigration laws.

According to Bondi, the Trump administration took action against Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Attorney General Letitia James, claiming they are protecting illegal immigrants by putting them above federal law.

"This is a new DOJ," Bondi said. "New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens. It stops. It stops today."

The newly sworn-in attorney general also announced that Mark Schroeder, commissioner of the New York Department of Motor Vehicles, was indicted for failing to enforce immigration law.

Particularly, Bondi cited the Green Light laws, better known as the "Driver's License Law," which makes it easier for illegal immigrants to obtain a driver's license and impossible for some federal agencies to access driver's license information in New York state.

"They have green light laws, meaning they're giving a green light to any illegal alien in New York, where law enforcement officers cannot check their identity if they pull them over (...) And law enforcement officers do not have access to their background. And if these great men and women pull over someone and don't have access to their background, they have no idea who they're dealing with, and it puts their lives on the line every single day," Bondi said.

The announcement against New York is not the Trump administration's first immigration action against a "sanctuary state."

Last week, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against sanctuary policies in Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago.

With that action, the DOJ seeks to invalidate state and local laws such as the "Way Forward Act," the "TRUST Act" or the "Welcoming City of Chicago Act," which the Trump administration claims are designed to supersede and impair federal immigration enforcement run by the government.

Taking Illinois and New York as the first examples, Bondi called on the rest of the "sanctuary states" to take steps to enforce immigration law or else they will be measured in the courts.

"We don't want to sue you. We don't want to prosecute people. We want people to comply with the law," s Bondi said. She was accompanied by Tammy Nobles, a Maryland "angel mother" whose 20-year-old daughter Kayla Hamilton was raped and murdered in 2022 by an illegal Salvadoran immigrant member of the dreaded MS-13 gang, which the Trump Administration is about to designate as a terrorist organization alongside Mexican cartels and "Tren de Aragua".

"This is very simple. An MS-13 member murdered her daughter. That's happening throughout this country (...) One angel mom is too many. And we have angel moms throughout this country who should not be going through this. Comply with the law. This is the last thing we want to be doing," Bondi said.