The Trump administration opened a new legal front in its immigration clashes with Democratic-led states on Thursday, filing federal lawsuits against Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington over their refusal to issue undercover license plates to federal agents.
The Justice Department alleges the four states are imposing unconstitutional restrictions that impede law enforcement and threaten the safety of agents with the Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The suits, announced by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, argue that the state policies discriminate against federal personnel because the same states routinely grant undercover plates to their own police and investigative agencies.
“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,” Blanche said in a statement.
State officials pushed back sharply, framing the plate denials as a public-safety measure. Several argued that allowing unidentified federal agents to operate undercover with state-issued registration would enable aggressive immigration operations and erode community trust.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, whose office issues the plates, said the policy is designed to shield residents from unaccountable federal activity. Washington Governor Bob Ferguson noted that federal agents remain free to use unmarked vehicles and that the state is simply declining to grant a specific type of registration it has long reserved for state and local law enforcement. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s office cited a “responsibility to ensure state resources aren’t used to enable tactics that frighten the communities we serve,” while Massachusetts officials made similar arguments.
The lawsuits are the latest in a series of legal battles between the White House and Democratic governors over federal immigration authority. The administration previously sued Connecticut over a law restricting masks and identification requirements for ICE agents, and it filed a wide-ranging campaign demanding detailed voter rolls from 23 states. Several federal judges have rejected or limited the Justice Department’s demands in those earlier cases.
The undercover-plate dispute adds a new dimension to the conflict: the question of whether states must extend a sensitive law-enforcement tool to federal officers whose missions they oppose as a matter of policy. The four targeted states are framing the matter as one of local public safety and prudent resource allocation; the Justice Department is casting it as a direct challenge to federal supremacy and an impediment to lawful immigration enforcement. The litigation is expected to move into federal district courts in the coming weeks.