For nearly two decades, undocumented immigrants in New York have been barred from applying for state driver's licenses.

Monday, that changed.

"It's incredibly, incredibly exciting and we have been waiting so long for this right to be restored," Anu Joshi, senior immigration policy director for the New York Immigration Coalition, said.

With the new Green Light law officially in effect, immigrants at downstate auto bureaus lined up down the street to apply. The scene in many upstate counties was vastly different though.

"I think we've seen a concerted effort by a handful of anti-immigrant county clerks and public officials to do what they can to make their constituents afraid," Joshi said.

Last week, 27 county clerks called on the governor to delay implementation. In Genesee County, some protested the law.

"What we're doing is a violation of everything that America's about or has been about," protester Carl Hyde, Jr. said.

Clerk Michael Cianfrini, R, won't process any new licenses, regardless of who is applying, right now.

"Given the uncertainty that we have with this new law and how we're supposed to be processing these, at this point we've imposed what's hopefully going to be a temporary moratorium until we can get some more information from the state, some more training and try to protect ourselves in the processing of these documents," he said.

Niagara County said it will only process so-called Green Light transactions at one office, and only from Tuesday to Thursday between 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Monday, that Lockport office was closed anyway as staff continued to train on the new law.

"We know there are a tremendous amount of fraudulent documents out there and all we're saying to you is if we're not sure if these are good legal documents, we're going to forward them on to the state," County Clerk Joe Jastrzemski said.

And in Erie County, Clerk Mickey Kearns, D, said only a handful of people attempted to apply for licenses with foreign documents so far. He has repeatedly said they won't process applications from people in the country illegally but staff Monday did make copies of the documents and issue receipts. Kearns said he's still not exactly sure how to proceed.

"This was poorly rolled out and just think about the regulations," he said. "Why didn't the state issue regulations? It's normally done."

NYIC said it expects more people will begin to apply across the state in the coming weeks and months and the governor to take steps to alleviate fears if turnout continues to be poor Upstate.