Illinois is targeting immigration officials who try to hide their license plates

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias launched a hotline urging the public to report any incidents of ICE or Customs and Border Protection tampering with their plates.

CHICAGO — Illinois is attempting to crack down on federal officers who try to disguise their vehicles in pursuit of undocumented individuals.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias on Wednesday launched “Plate Watch,” a hotline urging the public to report instances where law enforcement vehicles are not carrying valid license plates, including when the plate IDs are partially shrouded or entirely missing.

As he launched the effort, Giannoulias held up a social media video in which an immigration officer is seen telling a protester to take all the photos they wanted of a specific truck’s license plates because they swapped them out every day anyway.

A Giannoulias aide said that, as this intensified enforcement has played out in recent weeks, the secretary of state’s office received reports from anonymous callers complaining of varying violations: a different license plate on the front of the vehicle than in the back, no license plates on either the front or the back, plates that are partially masked, or the same vehicle carrying a different license plate from one day to the next.

The office said each of those instances is a violation of Illinois law.