By Nate Raymond
BOSTON, May 28 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is suing to challenge four Democratic-led states’ refusal to issue confidential license plates to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, saying they have long provided them to other law enforcement agencies conducting undercover operations.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday said it had filed lawsuits against Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington after they refused to rescind their policies and allow ICE access to such plates to carry out arrests as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Officials in at least two of those states – Maine and Massachusetts – have previously cited aggressive tactics by ICE agents for not wanting state resources to be used to facilitate covert civil immigration enforcement.
The lawsuits make good on a threat Assistant U.S. Attorney General Brett Shumate had made in a series of letters he sent earlier this month to state officials to sue if they did not alter their policies.
The Justice Department contends the states unlawfully discriminate against the federal government in violation of the U.S. Constitution by treating ICE and other components of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security differently than state and local agencies involved in law enforcement.
The Justice Department said the policies threaten the safety of federal immigration agents, exposing officers to harassment, tracking, and assaults in the performance of their duties while carrying out arrests.
“Law enforcement officers risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe and must be able to carry out their duties effectively,” Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
Spokespeople for the governors of Maine, Oregon and Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat, pointed to a letter her administration sent the Justice Department last week defending its policy.
In the letter, Healey’s administration described the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles’ policy as lawful, saying it applied not just to federal agencies but state and local law enforcement as well, who could only obtain such license plates for criminal probes.
The Justice Department in its lawsuit against Massachusetts said that as recently as 2025, all federal agencies including ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection had been able to obtain confidential vehicle registrations and license plates in Massachusetts.
The policy changed this year, according to the lawsuit, with Healey’s administration declaring that it would not enable ICE’s tactics.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, editing by Deepa Babington)
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