Democrat-led states are refusing to issue vehicle registrations to ICE officers working undercover, the Justice Department said Wednesday, accusing the states of putting criminals ahead of agents’ safety.
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate fired off letters to the governors of Oregon and Massachusetts and the attorneys general in Washington and Maine, demanding they find ways to revoke the policies.
“It’s dangerous, shameful and unconstitutional. It needs to stop now,” Mr. Shumate said on social media as he released the letters publicly.
The registrations are standard in law enforcement work, allowing agents and officers to blend in with regular traffic and conduct operations with less visibility.
Mr. Shumate said Oregon refuses to license all federal law enforcement, while Maine will only grant a license after the federal agency proves it won’t use that vehicle for immigration enforcement.
Washington will issue to some federal agencies but not Homeland Security. And Massachusetts specifically targets U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, only offering civilian undercover registrations to vehicles if ICE proves it’s for criminal investigations and not civil immigration enforcement.
Treating federal agencies worse than state and local ones could be a problem for the states.
California ran into that issue when it tried to pass a law barring federal immigration authorities from wearing masks while on duty in the state. A judge blocked the law, saying discriminating against the feds violated the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which makes national government laws paramount over state and local laws.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche signaled Wednesday that the states denying vehicle registrations would face similar action.
“Sanctuary policies that obstruct ICE from performing its lawful mission to protect public safety are inexcusable,” he wrote on social media. “Removing criminal aliens from American communities is a priority, and unconstitutional actions that prevent this will be dealt with.”
The Washington Times has contacted the four states, seeking comment on the DOJ’s demands.
The registration issue is part of a broader pattern of resistance from Democrat-led states to the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.
The Justice Department’s efforts to battle those policies have met with mixed success.
California’s anti-masking law was blocked by a district judge, and a federal appeals court halted the state’s attempt to require ICE officers to wear identifying name tags or badge numbers.
But in New York, a federal judge upheld that state’s policy barring ICE from making immigration arrests at its courthouses. The judge in that case said that since the state provides the security at the courthouse, ICE was taking advantage of that when it made arrests there — and that amounted to “commandeering” the state for federal purposes.
