this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
422 points (99.5% liked)

News

36634 readers
1854 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

all 34 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] dhork@lemmy.world 129 points 3 months ago (3 children)

.... 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".

[–] Carmakazi@piefed.social 46 points 3 months ago (1 children)

"Operators" is also an interesting way to describe their officers/agents. They're trying to conflate themselves with the military, specifically special operations.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 22 points 3 months ago

No, I think in this case they may be referencing the relevant Illinois statute. I bet it refers to "Motor Vehicle Operators".

[–] falseWhite@lemmy.world 30 points 3 months ago (1 children)

"We always comply with the law, except when we don't"

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 13 points 3 months ago

“We always comply with the law, because the executive has decreed that we ARE the law.”

[–] Manjushri@piefed.social 5 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Someone needs to go back to civics class and learn what the Supremacy Clause actually means.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Isnt that the clause that makes Donald Trump the supreme ruler, like King Cyrus?

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

10th amendment would like to have a word with you.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 37 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Why do they get a warning?

I don't get a warning when I break the law.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

short version? the government has to consent to the suit in order for you to sue them.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago

Arrest them!

[–] TurdBurgler@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 months ago

Enforced by the same police that helped ICE be violent towards peaceful protestors?

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 13 points 3 months ago

If Illinois decades to get off their butts and prosecute ICE, they should cross reference the rentals with traffic cameras. Presumably the rentals have GPS trackers - so check the routes they take with the cameras, and see if the plates magically change.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

"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?

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Yeah but it seems they are being rented by people in plain clothes, as apparently several companies are already trying to refuse.

In particular one truck rental place was named that they were complaining that their trucks are not for transporting people in the cargo space.

In any case, if I rent a car where I live, and run a red light, commit a speeding offence, park illegally and get it towed, what usually happens is that the car gets treated the same way as any other car, the owning rental company gets charged and fined, and then they put on massive fees and forward the problem to me.

Why can't they just pull over the vehicle, impound it, and have everything happen like it would with anyone else?

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 4 points 3 months ago

Why can't they just pull over the vehicle, impound it, and have everything happen like it would with anyone else?

I really wish I had that answer, to me it makes the most sense too.

Like you said though, the fines would go to the rental company, and thats the liability we are talking about here.

[–] echolalia@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yeah but it seems they are being rented by people in plain clothes, as apparently several companies are already trying to refuse.

Seems to me (non-lawyer) like they can put out a form like "Are you renting this vehicle on behalf of a federal agency, or to accomplish work for a federal agency Y/N" and if the ICE agents lie on the form, the rental company can now sue the government for fraud. I imagine the individual ICE agent would also be in breach of contract or something.

I know someone who works for a federal agency (DOI, not DOJ/DOD) and they rent cars on behalf of the government frequently when they need to travel to accomplish their work (or they used to, in the before times). But they're like, doing normal, non-reprehensible things with the car... not filling it up with detainees.

Why can’t they just pull over the vehicle, impound it, and have everything happen like it would with anyone else?

They can do both, and I imagine they probably will.

[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Until someone starts to hold them to account then it is just a suggestion.