ICE agent arrested on suspicion of shooting into Minnesota home
Cristian Castro was wanted for the shooting death of Venezuelan national Julio C. Sosascelis. It is suspected that the shots were fired from the front door of the home.
The Justice Department announced it has filed a lawsuit against four states, alleging that denying federal employees confidential license plates violates the Constitution.
Maine, Washington, Oregon, and Massachusetts were all hit with lawsuits from the Department of Justice on May 27th. The state argues that its refusal to provide federal immigration officials with confidential or confidential license plates is “discriminatory” and unconstitutional.
The department originally sent a letter to state representatives on May 12 asking them to rescind the policy.
Here’s what you need to know about lawsuits and license plate obfuscation policies.
“Racist, obstructionist”
Federal immigration agents “take certain steps to ensure that their activities and identities are not known to the general public or the criminals they investigate,” according to the complaint. This includes masked license plates, which the Justice Department says “cannot be easily linked to authorities through records requests or other means.”
The complaint goes on to note that while mask plates are “expressly permitted” under state law, since President Donald Trump took back the White House in January 2025, “some states have sought to thwart the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts.”
Each state’s complaint is slightly different, but all are based on the idea that it is “discriminatory” to issue security plates to some law enforcement agencies and not others, such as immigration enforcement.
“The Department of Justice will use all legal authority to support our brave members of law enforcement,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “These governors are pursuing discriminatory and obstructionist policies against federal law enforcement by refusing to issue masked license plates to their own state agencies while refusing to issue them to DHS components, including ICE.”
Unmarked vehicles, undercover agents
Federal immigration officials concealing their identities through unmarked vehicles and masks has become a flashpoint in President Trump’s mass deportation efforts. The issue came to the fore earlier this year when two people, Alex Preti and Renee Good, were killed during an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota.
In a statement shared with USA TODAY, Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said her administration supports “legitimate criminal investigation” efforts by agencies from the local to federal level.
“But that is not what we are seeing from ICE and its unconstitutional tactics,” she added.
Healey said the state will not use its resources to “support ICE operating in secret and without accountability while refusing to provide basic information about who it arrests and why.”
“It makes our communities less safe, it undermines public trust, and it will not be tolerated in this state,” she said.
In Massachusetts, many federal agencies, including the FBI, DEA and ATF, can apply for confidential license plates “subject to need,” Healy noted. However, agencies that handle civil enforcement activities, which represent the majority of immigration enforcement actions, are not eligible.
Countries objected
The governor’s offices in Maine, Washington and Oregon did not respond to USA TODAY’s requests for comment prior to publication.
“Judges across the country have found that the Department of Homeland Security’s tactics to enforce civilian immigration enforcement routinely violate the Constitution,” Democratic Washington Governor Bob Ferguson said in a statement to the Seattle Times. He added: “That is unacceptable. Our nation will not encourage such illegal activity.”
Kevin Glenn, a spokesman for Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, said in a statement shared with Oregon Public Broadcasting that “state and local law enforcement agencies are unaffected by this suspension, and federal agencies participating in the program can continue to use their existing unexpired plates.”
Maine Secretary of State Shena Bellows (D) accused ICE of “trying to become some kind of secret police,” according to local media outlet WGME.
“They shouldn’t have masked license plates so they can pick people up on the street and spirit them away with no consequences,” she said.
Drew Pittock covers trending news from around the country for USA TODAY. He can be reached at DPittock@usatodayco.com.
