President Donald Trump’s administration has sued four states over their refusal to issue secret license plates to federal agents, the latest front in the broader struggle between the White House and Democratic-led states over the Republican president’s license. Immigration campaign.
The Justice Department alleges in separate lawsuits filed Wednesday that who, Massachusetts, Oregon State and Washington State It imposes unconstitutional restrictions that it says hinder law enforcement and threaten customer safety.
“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 escape justice, and terrorize American communities,” Blanche added.
The Department of Justice filed individual lawsuits in the US District Courts in the relevant states. It accuses the four state governments of trying to “obstruct the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts, even though control of immigration and the country’s borders is an exclusive federal authority.”
Specifically, the Justice Department argues in its lawsuits that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution prevents state governments from regulating federal law enforcement. The ministry had previously sent letters asking state officials to justify their policies.
The states did not immediately respond on Wednesday.
The department asserts that federal agents “often 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.
These arguments are similar to the administration’s 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.”
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Barrow reported from Atlanta.