DOJ gives Maine AG a deadline to provide undercover license plates for federal law enforcement
If the request is just not granted by Friday, May 22, the DOJ is threatening to take authorized motion.
MAINE, USA — The US Department of Justice is giving Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey till Friday to rescind a coverage preventing federal law enforcement from obtaining undercover license plates within the state.
“It should be immediately withdrawn; otherwise the United States intends to seek judicial relief,” a letter dated May 12, 2026, and signed by Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate reads.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows reacted to the letter in an interview with NEWS CENTER Maine Tuesday.
“Trump’s DOJ doesn’t scare me. It’s important to stand up for Mainers, including new Mainers, and it is really important that they are not arresting people in secret,” Bellows stated. “We don’t have secret police in a democracy. We’re not giving ICE undercover license plates for civil immigration enforcement.”
Bellows, who oversees the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles and state elections, introduced a pause in issuing confidential, undercover license plates again in January. As rumors started to swirl that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was planning to closely improve enforcement in Maine, Bellows stated his workplace obtained a request to undercover Maine plates from US Customs and Border Protection.
“These requests in light of rumors of ICE deployment to Maine and abuses of power in Minnesota and elsewhere raise concerns. We have not revoked existing plates but have paused issuance of new plates. We want to be assured that Maine plates will not be used for lawless purposes,” she stated again in January.
Maine’s BMV has since refused to difficulty these license plates to federal law enforcement, except the companies certify that the registered automobiles won’t be used for civil immigration enforcement, in accordance to Attorney General Shumate. During this time, Shumate stated the Maine BMV has continued to difficulty the identical plates to state and native law enforcement companies with out the identical certification.
Shumate’s letter argues the coverage is discriminatory, harmful for officers, and unconstitutional underneath the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution.
“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,” he wrote.
Since ICE surges started throughout the nation up to now 12 months, the company has stated a few of its officers have been focused with “threats, doxing, and harassment.”
The May 12 letter to Maine AG Aaron Frey calls for a response by Friday, May 22 with the peace of mind, “that this policy has in fact been rescinded and all federal law enforcement are again able to obtain undercover plates in your state on equal terms.”
“Absent such an assurance, the United States reserves all rights,” Shumate wrote.
Bellows stated she is just not involved about the specter of a lawsuit or accusations that the Maine BMV’s insurance policies are discriminatory.
“We’ve been issuing license plates to plenty of federal agencies that are not involved in civil immigration enforcement and that are signing our application and pledging not to do that,” she stated Tuesday. “I think we will prove that it’s constitutional. If they sue us, we’ll see them in court.”
Bellows is one of five Democratic candidates now running for governor and has boasted about her resolution in gubernatorial debates.
She defined extra of her rationale in a January 21 interview with NEWS CENTER Maine: “People are being dragged out of their homes, stopped on the street, and detained, and in many cases, those individuals are legally here, either asylum seekers or refugees, new Mainers with legal status, or in many situations, citizens who are Black and brown. People are getting racially profiled and they’re getting kidnapped off the street, and that is absolutely wrong.”
Bellows declined on the time to describe the variety of undercover license plates that had been requested.
She stated within the January interview, “Unmarked plates are for special operations. Maybe law enforcement is conducting surveillance of a potential drug operation or something that would do harm to Mainers, and so for a long time, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles has had longstanding relationships with law enforcement. We routinely get requests for unmarked plates associated with confidential operations that are legitimate, covert operations.”
The Office of the Maine Attorney General didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.