Immigration experts say that Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed immigration plan, which will be debated in a special legislative session, goes further than does that of any other non-border state. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Gov. Bill Lee surprised many when he inserted an “illegal immigration agenda” into his proclamation for a special legislative session that will focus primarily on a controversial private school voucher proposal and disaster relief for counties struggling to recover from Hurricane Helene.
Lee’s proclamation, released three days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, is aimed at “ensuring our state is ready to assist President Trump in carrying out his immigration enforcement agenda,” a press announcement said.
National immigration policy experts said Lee’s five-point immigration plan, which incorporates elements of a sweeping 2023 Texas law to detain and deport immigrants, appears to go further in asserting state power over immigration enforcement than any other non-border state.
I’m not aware of any other state that has passed a law like this and, if Tennessee passes this, it would be an outlier.
– Matt Lopas, National Immigration Law Center
Tennessee Democrats have questioned the timing and substance of the proposal, which will be debated alongside a school voucher plan resurrected after its failure to pass last year handed Lee a resounding political defeat. Democratic lawmakers said the singular focus of a special session should be disaster relief to northeast Tennessee counties devastated by Hurricane Helene four months ago.
“This whole immigration thing has been thrown in here as an attempt to distract from the voucher scam,” Rep. John Ray Clemmons, a Nashville Democrat, said Friday.
“At the last minute he threw in extremist red meat,” Clemmons said.
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But Tennessee’s Republican leadership has embraced the governor’s proposed legislation as a necessary complement to Trump’s national immigration crackdown.
“With President Trump back in office, we in Tennessee want to make sure we do everything we can to cooperate with those efforts,” said House Leader William Lamberth, a Portland Republican.
“We want to make sure that we have individuals who are liaising directly with the Trump Administration to make sure that this goes smoothly, so that illegal immigrants are deported but legal residents and legal immigrants and U.S. citizens are not in any way affected,” Lamberth told the Lookout on Friday.
Lee noted that Trump has “made it clear that states will play a major role in partnering with his Administration to enforce immigration laws and keep communities safe, and Tennessee is heeding the call.”
Lee’s ‘illegal immigrant agenda’
Lee’s plan includes creating a state immigration enforcement division headed by a new Tennessee chief immigration officer, mirroring a similar effort underway by Florida Governor Ron Desantis to appoint a state liaison to work with the Trump Administration on immigration enforcement.
The office would be housed within the Tennessee’s Department of Safety & Homeland Security and work to “ensure efficient resource allocation and effective enforcement of immigrant laws,” the governor’s announcement said.
The office’s responsibilities would include “developing strategic immigration enforcement plans” and “coordinating participation in federal immigration programs” including the so-called 287(g) program, a voluntary program for law enforcement entities that agree to take on some immigration enforcement activities.
Only two Tennessee jurisdictions – Greene and Knox Counties – currently participate in the 287(g) program.
The plan also calls for adding “visually distinctive markers” to Tennessee IDs and driver’s licenses issued to all non-citizens as part of an effort aimed at “raising standards” for state-issued identification. Currently, lawful permanent residents – such as those who hold green cards – may obtain the same licenses as U.S. citizens.
The plan wields both carrots and sticks.
Local law enforcement agencies that agree to enforce U.S. immigration laws would be in line for financial grants to defer the often-expensive costs of participating in training officers and opening up detention space for immigration violation arrests.
The proposed legislation does not yet include budget estimates for the grants.
Meanwhile city and county officials who vote in favor of so-called “sanctuary city” status could be charged with a Class E felony and removed from office. Sanctuary cities are already barred under a 2019 Tennessee law.
Lamberth, who is carrying Lee’s immigration measure in the House, said he believed some elements of the proposed legislation would be temporary, including the addition of a two-person state immigration enforcement division consisting of the state’s chief immigration officer and a second staff member.
“We would anticipate those positions would be there for a couple years until we get through this illegal immigration crisis and then those positions would probably go away,” he said, estimating the budget for the office would amount to roughly $200,000 to cover staffing costs.
A formal financial analysis of the total cost of the proposal has not yet been completed by the state’s Fiscal Review office.
‘A big part of our workforce’
There are approximately 150,000 undocumented immigrants living in Tennessee – about 100,000 aged 16 and older who are actively participating in the state’s labor force, according to an analysis of American Community Survey data by the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank.
The figures do not encompass immigrants with certain temporary legal statuses the Trump Administration last week announced would be revoked.
Mass federal detention and deportation of Tennessee’s immigrants – with state assistance – would not only devastate impacted families but cripple economic sectors that rely heavily on an immigrant workforce, according to Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.
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“Immigrants are not only contributors to our state – they pay taxes – they are also a big part of our workforce, so if we don’t have folks who can help work farms and put food on our table that’s going to be felt by everybody,” she said.
Lamberth, however, disputed the notion that Tennessee employers are dependent on an undocumented immigrant workforce.
The vast majority of businesses he knows in Tennessee pride themselves on hiring U.S. citizens or legal immigrants, Lamberth said.
“If folks are hiring illegal immigrants, then they are violating the laws we have set up already and I can virtually guarantee you they are not treating those workers as they should be treated from a pay or employee rights standpoint,” he said. “I don’t know how many are doing that but none should be.”
‘If Tennessee passes this, it would be an outlier’
Critics of Lee’s immigration plan have also called it an unnecessary duplication of existing state laws.
Lee’s proposal would make it a Class E felony for a local public official to vote in favor of sanctuary city status. The bill would also give the Tennessee Attorney General the authority to initiate proceedings to remove local officials who persist in a sanctuary city effort from office.
Tennessee in 2018 outlawed local governments from adopting sanctuary city status, a measure that took effect in 2019. The designations generally limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, except for individuals who have committed serious offenses. No Tennessee city or county has attempted to vote in favor of sanctuary city status since.
And a little-publicized 2024 Tennessee law already requires all local law enforcement agencies in Tennessee to check on, and report, the immigration status of all arrestees to the federal government. At the request of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, law enforcement can then be required to hold the individual for up to 48 hours.
“Tennessee localities are already required to collaborate with the federal government in terms of complying with existing federal immigration law,” Luna said.
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A state centralized immigration enforcement division proposed by Lee drew criticism from national immigrant advocates.
Immigration enforcement is a purely federal responsibility, said Matt Lopas, deputy director for state advocacy with the National Immigration Law Center, which advocates on behalf of immigrant rights.
“This is a very extreme proposal,” Lopas said. “I’m not aware of any other state that has passed a law like this and, if Tennessee passes this, it would be an outlier,” he said.
Tennessee’s special legislative session is expected to last at least one week before the body returns to regular business. While Lee’s proposal is the only immigration-related bill to be considered during the special session, several additional bills will be heard when it ends.
Among them is a measure requiring undocumented families to pay tuition at public K-12 schools, a requirement hospitals receiving Medicaid report the immigration status of their patients and a rule that banking institutions must verify immigration status of customers sending funds overseas.
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