The Trump administration is suing Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington state for refusing to issue undercover license plates to federal immigration agents. The Department of Justice claims these states are obstructing federal law enforcement and violating the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.

But these states are not obstructing justice. They are protecting their residents from covert federal surveillance and unaccountable enforcement operations carried out by agents who already show up masked, in unmarked vehicles, and without identifying themselves.

This lawsuit is part of a broader pattern. The same administration that killed two U.S. citizen protesters in Minnesota using masked federal agents is now suing states for refusing to help those same agents operate in secret. The same Justice Department that is going after sanctuary cities, threatening local police, and weaponizing federal courts against Democratic governors is now demanding that state governments actively assist in disguising federal agents conducting immigration sweeps.

States have the right to set their own license plate policies. Refusing to issue undercover plates to a federal agency is not discrimination — it is a legitimate exercise of state authority. The DOJ's own acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, personally represented Donald Trump in multiple criminal cases. His department is not a neutral arbiter of constitutional law.

We're calling on the Department of Justice to drop its lawsuits against Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington and stop using federal courts to bully states into enabling ICE's covert operations.