The Trump administration sued four Democratic-led states Wednesday over the states’ refusal to grant undercover license plates to federal agents, marking the latest escalation between state sanctuary policies and the federal government’s aggressive deportation campaign.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the lawsuits against Oregon, Washington, Maine and Massachusetts in a press release, framing the state’s decisions as unconstitutional and without merit. Federal attorneys seek to prevent the states from refusing to issue registrations and any license plates to federal agencies while providing them to similarly-situated state and local law enforcement, citing the U.S. constitution’s supremacy clause.
“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,” Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “These actions undermine federal immigration enforcement, allow dangerous criminals to escape justice, and terrorize American communities.”
The lawsuits follow warnings from the Justice Department to each of the state’s top officials, including Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, this month. Oregon transportation officials had quietly halted the issuance of undercover license plates to federal agencies in mid-April, suggesting that providing them could open up the state to litigation alleging it is violating state sanctuary protections.
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown in a May 22 letter to the U.S. Department of Justice wrote that “the supremacy clause does not require Washington to affirmatively commit its resources to facilitate these lawless acts, which have provoked fear in our residents and undermined public trust in law enforcement.”
A spokesperson for Brown said that his office will “review this suit with our state agency clients and defer to them for public comments for now.” A spokesperson for Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield deferred comment to the state’s motor vehicle services division, writing: “This is a policy choice for the executive branch.”
For decades, sanctuary laws have prohibited Oregon agencies from assisting federal immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant. While Oregon law also allows Oregon’s transportation department to issue plates or other evidence of registration for undercover vehicles used by federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement undertaking criminal investigations, the statute does not mention immigration enforcement, which falls under civil law.
Chris Crabb, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Transportation, said the agency was still reviewing the lawsuit. She pointed to a letter last week signed by a top Oregon transportation official telling the Trump administration that state law “permits, but does not require, DMV to issue undercover plates.”
The DMV is reviewing the policy and has offered few details to date.
Responding to the lawsuit, Kotek’s office said the governor expects the DMV to “clearly communicate next steps.”
“The governor is aware that Oregon DMV has temporarily paused disbursing new undercover license plates to federal agencies as it reviews its policies and rules to ensure its federal undercover license plate program complies with Oregon law,” spokesperson Kevin Glenn said in an email. “State and local law enforcement are unaffected by this pause and the federal agencies that participate in the program are able to continue to use their existing unexpired plates.”
