On May 12, the DOJ sent letters to the governors of Oregon and Massachusetts and the attorneys general of Washington and Maine, demanding that they revoke their policies.

In a letter to Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate warned that the state’s refusal to issue undercover license plates to all Department of Homeland Security vehicles was “not only deeply dangerous as a matter of public safety but also blatantly unlawful as a matter of constitutional law.”

Shumate pointed out that federal agents investigate serious crimes such as drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, human trafficking, terrorism, and fraud. Surveillance and other covert activities are key to fulfilling these responsibilities.

This is dangerous work, and those doing it deserve to be supported, not thwarted.

Indeed, Washington has implicitly acknowledged the need for undercover vehicles. The state issues undercover plates to local and state law enforcement.

Brown should know better. Before he won election as a Democrat in 2025, he served as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, where he oversaw the sort of investigations he is now impeding.

Playing politics with public safety is unacceptable, and in this instance, it is probably also unconstitutional.

As Shumate pointed out, the Washington State Department of Licensing “has directly run afoul of the Supremacy Clause by discriminating against the federal government.”

Local and state authorities do not get to pick and choose which federal laws they are willing to enforce. That is a dangerous precedent to set.

But setting dangerous precedents is what many Democrats are doing as part of their broader campaign to obstruct and vilify federal law enforcement.

Left-leaning officials in cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, Providence, Rhode Island, Minneapolis, Houston, Boston, and elsewhere have supported “ICE out” campaigns. They have prohibited local law enforcement personnel from cooperating with federal authorities, and they have banned Immigration and Customs Enforcement from using city-owned property and resources.

The campaign to delegitimize ICE has often been accompanied by grossly irresponsible rhetoric.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, for example, said federal immigration agents were “a small bunch of wannabe Nazis.” Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), his party’s vice presidential candidate in the last election, called ICE “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo.” Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) called the agency a “terrorist organization.”

This is language meant to incite, and it has had a predictable effect.

EDITORIAL: BIDEN OFFICIALS STILL LYING ABOUT IMMIGRATION

DHS officials recently reported a 1,300% increase in assaults and an 8,000% increase in death threats against ICE agents and their families.

By obstructing and maligning federal law enforcement, many Democrats are doing lasting damage to both their fellow Americans and the American way of life. We may have only begun to see the consequences.