President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a Greek Independence Day celebration in the East Room of the White House on Monday, March 24, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin).
The state of Maine is standing firm against federal interference as it pushes back on the Trump administration’s demand to issue specific license plates for federal agents. This was stated in a recent filing presented this week in federal court.
The confrontation began in May when the U.S. Department of Justice launched legal action against Maine and its Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows. The DOJ’s detailed 18-page lawsuit contends that the state’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles wrongfully denied federal immigration agents requests for undercover, confidential license plates.
Bellows has previously articulated her stance, making it clear that her department, which manages the BMV, will only agree to provide unmarked plates to federal immigration officers if assured they will not assist in “lawless purposes.”
Meanwhile, the federal government claims discrimination, arguing that agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are being unfairly targeted by Maine’s policies.
Specifically, Maine’s secretary of state updated the application for confidential law enforcement license plates to include an attestation that they would not be used for immigration enforcement.
The state casts the application as “Maine’s legitimate decision not to join in with the federal government to carry out federal policy.”
In the motion, the state notes that Maine law gives Bellows “absolute discretionary authority over” the issuance of license plates.
“Here, the United States is asking the Court to re-write a Maine statute providing the Secretary with sole authority to decide on a case-by-case basis whether to authorize a law enforcement vehicle to operate with a confidential State of Maine license plate,” the motion continues.
Maine argues that its license plate rules do not affect whether immigration agents can perform their jobs.
“Maine has not acted to ‘interrupt’ or stand between the federal government and enforcement of its immigration policies,” the motion continues. “Instead, Maine has merely opted not to contribute the State’s resources toward efforts that assist in disguising a different government’s vehicles from Maine’s citizens.”
The filing goes on like this:
If there is legitimate immigration policy to pursue within State borders, Maine is not stopping the federal government from executing it. It has not attempted to bar federal vehicles from its roads. Nor does Maine subject the federal government to any special requirement before entering the State.
Maine also says the DOJ “incorrectly” claimed that “confidential license plates are ‘otherwise available’ to them under Maine law.”
In other words, the state says the DOJ got the law wrong by arguing that Maine is only subjecting “federal law enforcement” to case-by-case review. Rather, the state notes, all license plates are subject to such review.
“Given the breathtaking scope of the federal government’s demand, it would be difficult to concoct a better example of an attempt to ‘commandeer state executive and legislative officials to implement federal policies’ in violation of the Tenth Amendment,” the motion to dismiss goes on. “The Court should not bless these efforts.”
The post ‘Federal government seeks to hijack’: Maine implores judge to dismiss Trump admin lawsuit after refusing to provide undercover license plates to ICE agents first appeared on Law & Crime.