WASHINGTON — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that the Department of Justice is suing Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Attorney General Letitia James over a state law restricting the Department of Motor Vehicles from immediately turning over driver's license information to federal immigration enforcers.

Bondi, at a news conference, took aim at the state’s 2019 Green Light Law — which allows all New Yorkers ages 16 and older to apply for a driver’s license or learner's permit regardless of citizenship status. The law also requires the DMV to notify the license holder "when immigration enforcement agencies request" their information, according to the state DMV website.

"New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens," Bondi said. "It stops, it stops today. As you know we sued Illinois, and New York didn’t listen — so, now, you’re next."

Last week Bondi filed a federal lawsuit against Illinois officials, arguing their immigration policies "impede the federal government’s ability to carry out its immigration enforcement activities."

The Department of Justice did not immediately provide a copy of Wednesday's lawsuit but Bondi argued that what she called the "tipoff provision" of the state’s Green Light law was unconstitutional. She said Mark Schroeder, the state's DMV commissioner, was also listed in the lawsuit.

"It's tipping off an illegal alien, and it's unconstitutional, and that's why we filed this lawsuit," Bondi said.

Hochul, in a statement Wednesday night, said New York would not give federal agents "unfettered access" to New Yorkers' personal data.

"Here are the facts: our current laws allow federal immigration officials to access any DMV database with a judicial warrant," Hochul said in the statement. "That's a common-sense approach that most New Yorkers support. But 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."

The governor called Bondi's suit "a routine civil action … that has been upheld by the courts time and again."

In a statement, James said: "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."

James successfully defended the Green Light Law against lawsuits brought in two federal district courts by Republicans.

In 2019, Republican county clerks who issued driver's licenses in upstate counties argued the law was unconstitutional. The clerks said they would refuse to issue driver's licenses to people they suspected of being in the country illegally, and their lawsuits were supported by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department during his first term.

However, none of the clerks nor the Justice Department brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court for a final ruling on the state law’s constitutionality.

New York's Driver's License Access and Privacy Act was passed after being proposed as a way to make sure all drivers regardless of their citizenship status learned to drive safely through the state’s system that requires paper exams and road tests.

The Green Light Law also meant to allow immigrants, in the U.S. legally or not, to have transportation to take to jobs, go to houses of worship and join in community activities.

The licenses were standard licenses, which can’t be used for federal purposes such as identification needed to enter certain federal facilities.

Bondi's lawsuit comes as the Trump administration has moved swiftly to enact a series of hard-line immigration policies including ramping up deportations, using the Guantánamo Bay naval station as an immigrant detention center and halting the migrant asylum process at the U.S.-Mexico border.