Blizzard warnings in Northwest Minnesota, winter weather advisories across the state

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

The director of Minnesota’s Driver and Vehicle Services is warning U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that they’re violating state law and could be cited if they switch out or remove license plates on their unmarked vehicles. 

The move comes after multiple reports from observers that ICE and Department of Homeland Security agents have been seen changing or removing the license plates in the vehicles they have been using to patrol the state during the ongoing immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities. 

Related coverage

ICE for ‘chaos’ in immigration actions as operation goes on

citizen observer watching ICE detain neighbors on her north Minneapolis block

immigrant parents look to make arrangements for their children

Luke Mielke has been observing ICE agents outside the Whipple Federal Building since the agency’s immigration enforcement surge started earlier this month. On the morning of Dec. 14, he and a friend filmed federal agents appearing to blatantly change license plates on vehicles they were using.  

“We witnessed several ICE agents gathered in the back of a car, with a stack of license plates they were sorting through, then taking a plate off the car and putting a new license plate on the car,” Mielke said. 

Video shared with MPR News appears to confirm Mielke’s account. ICE officials didn’t immediately answer a request for comment.

The conduct that’s been reported to the state “violates Minnesota law and will not be tolerated,” said Pong Xiong, director of Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services, in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the local ICE office on Tuesday. 

“Use of Minnesota license plates on a vehicle other than the vehicle to which the license plate is assigned unnecessarily puts DHS agents at risk of being stopped and cited under this section,” Xiong wrote.

Xiong told federal homeland security officials to stop license plate switching immediately and confirm that all vehicles being used by federal agents bear their assigned license plates. 

Minnesota has an ongoing program to allow undercover law enforcement vehicles to receive license plates for unmarked vehicles. Xiong warned that the federal agency’s participation in that program could be jeopardized if the behavior continues. He also said in the letter that the state also has the right to revoke the registrations and seize license plates of vehicles with misused plates. 

In a statement to MPR News, Xiong said behavior like switching plates causes understandable concerns for Minnesotans: “Our responsibility is to ensure Minnesota laws are followed and that everyone using our roads can do so safely.” 

Gov. Tim Walz said earlier this week that agents should stop the practice and criticized federal officials for showing a lack of transparency during recent Minnesota operations. 

“They’re doing what criminals do. They’re putting license plates on vehicles they’re not registered to, so they're renting vehicles and putting on fake plates,” Walz said. “That’s not law enforcement, that’s criminal activity.”

Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson said observers who suspect plate swapping is occurring can lodge complaints with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Activists have been sharing information and tracking ICE vehicles throughout the Twin Cities, partly by using their license plate numbers and the models of the vehicles. 

“ICE does not like their activity being tracked or observed by the public,” Mielke said. “They’re trying to avoid scrutiny and be able to operate in the shadows, without public transparency, so one of the ways they’re doing that is driving vehicles without license plates or exchanging license plates on the vehicles.”  

Mielke said he’s especially concerned about the precedent it sets to allow federal agents to go around without identification or to violate state laws. He’s worried it could embolden copycats to pose as law enforcement agents and commit crimes against the public just a few months after Minnesota lawmaker 

Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman 

were assassinated by a man posing as law enforcement.

License swapping has been reported in other states that experienced immigration enforcement surges.

 In Illinois, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias has launched a public hotline

 to report license tampering and warned that penalties for violating state law could include jail time. 

MPR News reporter Dana Ferguson contributed to this report. 

Politics and Government News

Social Issues

Immigration

NewsPartners

Homepage

Jon Collins

Author

The director of Minnesota’s Driver and Vehicle Services told federal homeland security officials to stop license plate switching immediately. Gov. Tim Walz called tampering with plates “criminal activity.” 

People stand behind a car and change the license plates

Minnesota DVS warns ICE agents they’re violating state law by switching license plates

Go Deeper.

Like this?