A New York State Supreme Court ordered on Feb. 17 the state to stop taking away the driver’s licenses of immigrants in New York who do not have Social Security cards. Justice Karen S. Smith said that the Department of Motor Vehicles is not authorized to enforce immigration law or to make new rules without public notice, The New York Times reported.

Last year, the department had embarked on crackdown against license holders with Social Security cards which would have eventually led to the loss of driving privileges for as many as 300,000 immigrants in New York State this year. So far it has already led to the suspension of about 7,000 licenses.

Although the order by State Supreme Court in Manhattan was temporary, lawyers on both sides said it reflected her preliminary opinion that immigrant drivers would suffer irreparable harm unless the crackdown was stopped while the court considers a class-action lawsuit brought on their behalf, and that the immigrants’ suit was likely to prevail, the paper said. The class-action suit was filed last summer against New York Governor George E. Pataki and Raymond Martinez, the motor vehicles commissioner, by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

It was brought on behalf of New Yorkers who have been denied a driver’s license or identity card for lack of a verifiable Social Security number or an immigration document satisfactory to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs described the order as a “clear victory” for the immigrant community which is “entitled to the same licenses as any other resident of the state.”

The judge’s order requires the state to give the plaintiffs 48 hours’ notice before sending out letters suspending the licenses of tens of thousands of other drivers, the paper said. It said as a practical matter, no more suspensions are likely to occur until after hearing April 7 on the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction.

(Compiled from news dispatches by M. Chooki)