As DOJ’s threat to sue lingers, Maine stands by refusal to provide ICE covert plates

The Trump administration had given Maine a deadline of Friday to rescind its policy denying immigration authorities covert license plates. The state didn’t budge, leaving the threat of a lawsuit lingering. 

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows had received a request from federal authorities for undercover license plates a week before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s large-scale operation in the state began in January, and amid a major surge in Minnesota where federal agents shot and killed U.S citizens. 

Citing the need for assurance that Maine plates wouldn’t be used for lawless purposes, Bellows denied the federal agents covert plates, a decision that’s up to her discretion under state law. However, this marked the first time Bellows, a Democrat who is also running for governor, suspended such plates during her tenure.

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice gave Maine until Friday to rescind the decision, “otherwise the United States intends to seek judicial relief,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote in a letter to Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey on May 12. 

That deadline has since passed and Maine hasn’t been sued, yet. The DOJ has not responded to requests regarding whether they plan to follow through with legal action. 

“We don’t have secret police in a democracy, and covert civil immigration enforcement is not something Maine will facilitate,” Bellows said in a statement. “If the DOJ wants to sue us over that, we’ll see them in court. 

“And we will win just like we did [Thursday.]”

On Thursday, a federal court delivered a blow to the DOJ, granting Maine’s motion to throw out the federal government’s lawsuit over the state refusing to turn over sensitive voter data. 

Regarding the covert plates, Bellows declined back in January to disclose the number of plates the federal government had requested but Frey’s response to the DOJ on Friday noted that the Department of Homeland Security requested 16 confidential plates from Maine between December 2025 and March 2026. 

He also wrote that the applications had certified that the vehicles wouldn’t be used for civil immigration enforcement. However, an ICE official later admitted to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles that the vehicles would be used for such purposes, according to Frey.

Frey wrote that the BMV didn’t grant the applications because they appeared to contain false statements. He also defended Maine’s covert plate program as neither discriminatory nor unlawful. 

Shumate claimed the program violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from interfering with the operations of the federal government. Frey wrote that the program reflects a legitimate and constitutional policy choice by the Secretary of State “not to allow its resources to be commandeered by the federal government for use in civil immigration enforcement activities that have, in Maine and elsewhere, resulted in multiple incidents of abusive and unconstitutional conduct.”

Shumate also called the pause dangerous and discriminatory, claiming the Maine BMV has continued to issue covert plates to state and local law enforcement without certifying that the registered vehicles will not be used for civil immigration enforcement. 

“If federal law enforcement vehicles are readily identifiable, either by a government plate or through a state plate and registration that is subject to public exposure through an information request, then officers, their families, and people under their protection will all be at risk,” Shumate wrote.

Since Bellows’ decision in January, she’s granted both state and federal law enforcement agencies confidential plates. Since January 6, she granted 48 confidential plates to eight different federal agencies, according to Frey’s letter. 

“[The] program applies to all law enforcement agencies in Maine,” Frey wrote. “It does not treat federal law enforcement agencies differently than similarly situated state law enforcement agencies.”