Gov. Bill Lee, photographed at a January 2025 groundbreaking event, will seek to create an immigration enforcement agency during an upcoming special legislative session. (Photo: John Partipilo)
1Gov. Bill Lee issued a proclamation Friday afternoon making official his call for a special session aimed at passing his private-school voucher plan and creating a centralized immigration enforcement agency.
As Lee announced earlier this week, the session, slated to start January 27, will also seek to provide disaster aid for East Tennessee counties devastated by Hurricane Helene flood waters in September.
But the proclamation also lays out Lee’s intention to create a Tennessee Transportation Funding Authority “to support public and private entity financing of transportation projects.” The measure is likely intended to support new toll lanes, or “choice lanes,” in Middle and East Tennessee.
In addition to Lee’s proposal to create a new immigration agency and enforcement fund, he may seek to create a mechanism to levy penalties for local government officials creating sanctuary cities for undocumented residents.
“Instead of focusing on the real needs of working class Tennesseans, such as cutting grocery taxes, protecting children from guns in school, or expanding health care, the governor is proposing using taxpayer resources to carry out the work of the federal government and tear families apart,” said Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. “Immigrants are part of the fabric of our communities and these actions serve to divide us from the real issues that Tennesseans are struggling with every day in order to push his deeply unpopular voucher agenda.”
The special session marks Lee’s latest attempt to pass universal school vouchers, which has been his signature legislation since his first election in 2018.
In 2019, the legislature passed a limited version of educational savings accounts, applicable only in Davidson and Shelby Counties, but not without discord: an FBI investigation ensued to determine if House lawmakers were offered inducements in exchange for votes to approve the measure.
A bill to expand the program statewide failed during the 2024 legislative session.
2025 voucher session proclamation