(The Center Square) – Tennessee Republicans’ immigration bill package ignores other affordability issues, Democrats say, setting up a battle in the General Assembly.
The bills address a wide range of topics from requiring proof of citizenship to obtaining some professional licenses to an English-only test to receive a driver’s license.
Lawmakers are reviving a bill that would allow schools to verify students’ immigration status. Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, sponsored legislation last year that would allow schools to do so and decide whether to charge out-of-state tuition to people illegally in the country, but it failed to make it out of the House.
“Laws will be enforced locally and statewide, will preserve legal immigration, protect taxpayers and end sanctuary cities loopholes,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton said on social media. “Tennessee will not become the next California, New York or Minnesota.”
House Bill 1704 by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, creates a Class A misdemeanor for anyone with a final deportation order who enters the state.
“Under President Donald Trump ’s leadership, we have finally taken the necessary steps to preserve our borders and the rule of law,” Lamberth said in a social media post. “Tennessee is collaborating with the White House to make our state the nation’s leader in combating illegal immigration.”
Democrats said Republicans are focusing on the wrong issue.
“These policies separate families, endanger Americans and distract our leaders from the issues that matter most to Tennesseans,” said Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Raumesh Akbari of Memphis. “Voters said loud and clear they want us to address the affordability crisis and bring down the cost of living. But instead of working on solutions for housing, health care, grocery costs and child care, Republicans are ramping up a dangerous distraction that avoids the hard work of lowering costs and investing in our future.”
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. John Ray Clemmons said the federal immigration system is broken but placed the blame on Republicans.
“Any issues we’re facing as a result of this broken system are because politicians in Washington, D.C., have failed us. Marsha Blackburn has been in D.C. for a quarter of a century and has never lifted a finger to fix this broken immigration system. The same record of failure on immigration applies to every other Republican serving our state in D.C.”
An estimated 6.1% of Tennesseans were born in other countries, according to the American Immigration Council. In 2023, immigrants paid $4.4 billion in taxes, the organization said.
“The supermajority is pushing this Stephen-Miller led agenda to distract from their failures of leadership,” Clemmons said. “In addition to gifting billions to out-of-state corporations and awarding no-bid contracts, Republicans just created the single largest welfare program in the last 50 years and now want to remove the spending cap from that voucher scam. Their fiscal recklessness and failures are literally killing Tennesseans, destroying local economies and delivering devastating blows to middle class families.”
