Illinois state officials have given national rental car companies official notice that immigration enforcement agents using their vehicles are not allowed to swap the rental’s assigned license plates for other plates to disguise the vehicles, and if they do, the rental car companies could be held liable.
According to documents obtained by NBC News via the Freedom of Information Act, the Illinois secretary of state’s office sent letters to at least 19 national car rental headquarters stating that they had received public complaints of immigration agents switching license plates on rented vehicles when Operation Midway Blitz, an extensive government deportation operation, was active in the Chicago area.
The letters were sent to Alamo, Enterprise, Budget, Hertz, Ace and other vehicle rental companies. They did not respond to requests for comment.
Arrest them!
… And they basically admitted it.
“Our operators comply with federal law and, consistent with the Supremacy Clause, endeavor to comply with state law except where doing so could compromise or interfere with the federal mission and operations,” the DHS said.
Which basically is another way of saying “We do what we want and Illinois can fuck off”.
“Operators” is also an interesting way to describe their officers/agents. They’re trying to conflate themselves with the military, specifically special operations.
No, I think in this case they may be referencing the relevant Illinois statute. I bet it refers to “Motor Vehicle Operators”.
“We always comply with the law, except when we don’t”
“We always comply with the law, because the executive has decreed that we ARE the law.”
Someone needs to go back to civics class and learn what the Supremacy Clause actually means.
Perhaps you do?
Ever seen a license plate on a mail truck? No, you haven’t, because they don’t use them. The Federal government does plate some of their vehicles, but it’s well established that they don’t have to obey state laws about it.
My father was a Federal pig, many years ago, and I once had a conversation with him about how they plated their cars. A few of the vehicles were owned by the government, but most were leased. Some were registered with the state, to the government, they were only supposed to look like ordinary cars at a glance. Some were registered to fictitious identities that were designed to hold up to a background check conducted by another government agency. They also had fake plates, including fake Mexican plates, as this office was near the Mexican border.
These vehicles are not owned by the Federal Government, though. They are owned by a rental agency, which is subject to State Law. Those law don’t dissolve into a puddle just because a Fed is renting them.
If ICE wants to flout State licensing laws, they can just buy all the cars they use. Lord knows they have enough money to do that.
Owned, leased, rented, commandeered at gunpoint, it’s completely irrelevant. The person operating the vehicle is exempt.
Your argument is analogous to claiming you can’t get a DUI in a rented car.
Isnt that the clause that makes Donald Trump the supreme ruler, like King Cyrus?
Unfortunately I think they’re probably right. If you cannot comply with both state and federal law you must comply with federal law first. That’s the supremacy clause.
10th amendment would like to have a word with you.
I doubt there is any Federal law that authorizes Federal employees to fiddle with license plates for cars that are registered with a state.
If the Federal government wants to do that they have their own system to register cars, independent of any state. If they were substituting State plates with US Government plates, maybe they have a point. But they are simply ignoring local laws, because they are inconvenient. The Supremacy clause doesn’t allow that.
They may simply be authorized by federal law to do a broad range of things when doing their jobs, like changing license plates, in which case a state cannot stop them.
I’m not sure what specific laws they’re operating under but it’s very likely they can do this unfortunately
Well, the Feds need to cite those specific laws, then. Illinois is well within their rights to enforce this stuff unless there is a specific Federal law that says otherwise.
I’m not a lawyer but my research is showing me that federal agents can operate under the supremacy clause itself to do whatever is necessary and proper in carrying out their federal duties.
A court will have to decide if swapping plates was reasonably necessary to carry out their authorized duties. I’m highly skeptical a court would rule against the Feds because they’d just say swapping plates is important for protecting our agents or some bullshit
“Official notice”
So it’s the rental car companies responsibility to enforce the law?
If they know it’s happening, maybe they need to step up enforcement, not pass the buck. But, I suppose that might actually be effective, and we can’t have that now, can we?
So it’s the rental car companies responsibility to enforce the law?
Kind of.
These are cars registered with the state, owned by the rental companies. Which makes them their cars, and their liability.
It isn’t so much that its their job to enforce the law, but their vehicles being used in violation of the law. If these were federally owned vehicles, they wouldn’t be required to register with the state, and it would be kind of irrelevant in that regard.
They aren’t though. These are rental company vehicles.
The goal, if I had my guess, is to make rental companies unwilling to rent their cars out due to the liability associated here. By publicly stating it like this, it gives a reason for the rental companies to say they can’t rent them out to DHS anymore. That part is just my guess though.
Maybe if the governor wasn’t a multi-billionaire focused on his own wealth the state could bring charges…
But he has too much wealth at stake to ever really fight back
JB Pritzker is actually cool and does a lot of good for Illinois. He can get guillotined last.
He’s “cool enough” to not fuck more shit up, but clearly won’t actually do anything to help.
Loves getting his name out in the press and making threats, but won’t actually do anything.
Won’t even prevent Illinois law enforcement for working with ice for fucks sake.
It’s insane the billionaire owned media is able to convince so many people that a multi-billionaire refusing to do anything to help is something to be celebrated just because his boot is calmly on our throats instead of actively stomping.
If Pritzker wasn’t in office, we could have someone willing to fight instead.
