DOJ sues states over undercover license plates restrictions for federal agents
The Department of Justice announced it has sued Maine, Washington, Oregon, and Massachusetts after the states denied confidential undercover license plates to federal agencies-while continuing to issue those plates to state and local law enforcement. The DOJ says it had sent letters urging the states to reverse the policies,but they refused.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche argued that restricting the plates puts law enforcement officers at risk and amounts to discriminatory obstruction of federal immigration enforcement. The DOJ contends the states’ actions undermine immigration enforcement efforts and could help criminals avoid accountability.
In court filings, Massachusetts is described as refusing plates for ICE and CBP due to objections to their immigration enforcement missions. Washington is said to have suspended issuance and renewal for DHS-affiliated agencies. oregon and maine are described as placing the confidential plate program for federal agencies under review, which prosecutors say improperly obstructs federal powers reserved under the Constitution.
The DOJ is asking a court to declare each state’s policy unconstitutional and invalid under federal supremacy principles and to require the confidential plate program to resume for federal agents.
The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it filed lawsuits against Maine, Washington, Oregon, and Massachusetts for denying undercover license plates to federal agencies.
The Department of Homeland Security was specifically restricted in access to confidential plates, due to immigration enforcement activities in the Democratic-led states, but all four states continued issuing such plates to state and local law enforcement, according to the complaints.
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Letters were sent to each state by the DOJ shortly after the policies were put in place, but all four states refused to rescind the plate restrictions, resulting in the lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said blue states’ policies put law enforcement officers at risk, and the lawsuits reflect the department’s effort to “support the brave men and women of law enforcement.”
“Law enforcement officers risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe and must be able to carry out their duties effectively,” Blanche said. “By denying undercover license plates to DHS components, including ICE, while issuing them to their own state agencies, these governors are pursuing discriminatory and obstructionist policies against federal law enforcement.”
“These actions undermine federal immigration enforcement, allow dangerous criminals to escape justice, and terrorize American communities,” he added.
According to the court filings, Massachusetts refused to issue confidential license plates to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection because “it objects to their immigration enforcement missions.”
Washington took a similar approach and suspended the issuance and renewal of undercover plates for DHS-affiliated agencies, the filing said.
“These brave agents, like their local counterparts, rely on various tools and techniques to stay safe while performing their official duties, including taking certain measures to keep their activities and identities unknown to the general public and the criminals they investigate,” the filing said. “One such tool is confidential license plates that cannot easily be tied back to their agencies through records requests or other means.”
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The DOJ said Oregon and Maine, rather, put the entire confidential plate program under review for federal agencies. It refers to these policies as a means to “obstruct the Federal Government’s immigration enforcement efforts, even though control over immigration and the nation’s borders is an exclusive federal power.”
Prosecutors are requesting that each state’s policy be declared unconstitutional and invalid under the intergovernmental immunity doctrine within the Supremacy Clause, and that the program be resumed for federal agents, as it has continued for state and local agencies.
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