Trump’s Justice Department is suing 4 Democratic-run states over denying secret license plates to federal agents

US President Donald Trump’s administration has filed a lawsuit against four states over their refusal to issue secret license plates to federal agents, the latest front in the broader conflict between the White House and Democratic-led states over the Republican president’s anti-immigration campaign.

The Justice Department alleges in separate lawsuits announced Thursday that Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington state impose unconstitutional restrictions that it says hinder law enforcement and threaten customer safety.

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“By denying secret license plates to components of the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE, while issuing them to their own government agencies, these governors are pursuing discriminatory and obstructive policies against federal law enforcement,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.

“These actions undermine federal immigration enforcement, allow dangerous criminals to evade justice, and terrorize American communities,” Blanche added.

The Justice Department filed the lawsuits on Wednesday before US district courts in the states concerned. It accuses the four state governments of trying to “obstruct the federal government’s efforts to enforce immigration laws, even though control of immigration and the country’s borders is an exclusive federal authority.”

Additionally, the Justice Department argues in its lawsuits that the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause prevents state governments from regulating federal law enforcement.

Read more: The Justice Department is challenging efforts to punish Trump administration lawyers in a new lawsuit

Maine Secretary of State Sheena Bellows, who oversees her state’s plaques program and is also a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said she was confident her decisions would hold up in court.

“What ICE in Maine has done and continues to do is terrorize our friends and neighbors,” Bellows said in an interview Thursday. “There is no secret police in a democracy and we will always defend the safety and freedom of Mainers.”

A spokesman for Massachusetts Attorney General Joy Campbell said the state’s attorneys are “reviewing the complaint and will defend the RMV policy to the greatest extent possible.”

Officials in Washington and Oregon did not respond to a request for comment on the federal action.

The feds say agents are at risk when they are easily identifiable

The department asserts that federal agents “frequently investigate and arrest violent criminals, including cartel members, gang members, sex offenders, human traffickers, and other violent crime offenders,” and says making those authorities easily identifiable exposes them to greater harassment and potential physical harm.

The lawsuit comes after a dispute between the Ministry of Justice and some state officials. The administration had previously sent letters to state officials asking them to justify their policies.

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Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey responded to the Justice Department last week, defending his state’s policy and disputing the Justice Department’s claim that it obstructed federal enforcement actions.

“Instead, the program reflects a legitimate and constitutional policy choice by SOS not to allow the federal government to seize its resources for use in civilian immigration enforcement activities that have, in Maine and elsewhere, led to multiple incidents of abusive and unconstitutional conduct by DHS officials,” Frye wrote.

As Secretary of State, Bellows announced a temporary suspension of secret license plates in January, after federal authorities ramped up their immigration enforcement activities in the state. Bellows said at the time that the state wanted to “ensure that Maine’s license plates will not be used for lawless purposes.”

The federal lawsuit against Maine says the state has “issued secret license plates to law enforcement agencies for many years” and that “such plates are expressly permitted under Maine law.” The suit says the state’s review this year led to illegal regulation of the federal government by requiring federal applicants for state license plates to certify that federal vehicles that obtained classified plates would not be used for civil immigration enforcement. The lawsuit also states that Maine did not impose proportionate requirements on state or local agencies applying for the plates, making the program discriminatory against the federal government.

Bellows has previously defended her decision.

“When ICE asked for secret license plates, I said no” because “secret civil immigration enforcement is not something the state of Maine will facilitate,” she said last week.

The arguments are similar to the debate over customer masks

The Trump administration’s arguments for license plates are similar to its defense of federal agents wearing masks while deployed in American cities. It became a flashpoint in an extended government shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, with Democrats on Capitol Hill demanding major changes in how Trump’s mass deportation plans are carried out after masked federal agents killed two American citizen protesters in Minnesota.

The White House and Department of Homeland Security have maintained the agency’s mask policy, and the department has already won a federal court order blocking a California law that bars law enforcement officials from covering their faces in the state.

Additionally, the administration has been at odds with so-called sanctuary cities where local law enforcement does not assist federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws. Blanche has instructed the Justice Department’s Civil Division to identify all state and local laws, policies, and practices that could impede what the department describes as “legitimate federal operations.”

Barrow reported from Atlanta. Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine.