A new class-action lawsuit — with plaintiffs in Memphis — claims a new state law on immigration enforcement oversteps federal law, which has sole power on the matter.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU of Tennessee) and National Immigration Law Center (NILC) filed a federal lawsuit Thursday challenging a law passed this legislative session.
That law creates a state crime for people who are immigrants with final removal orders but who have not yet left the state. It says if immigrants with final removal orders don’t leave Tennessee within 90 days of the order, they face a misdemeanor that comes with a maximum of 11 months and 29 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
The new law is set to go live on July 1. But the advocacy groups argue state lawmakers went too far and they hope to stop it with the lawsuit.
“The rule has been clear for well over a century: immigration enforcement is exclusively a federal power,” said Hannah Steinberg, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “The state’s overreach here is unlawful and inhumane, creating fear and upending lives for families, neighbors, and communities across Tennessee.”
Two plaintiffs in the case are from Memphis. Neither of them are named fully, instead only identified as “plaintiff Lucy” and “plaintiff Benjamin.”
Lucy is 58, came to the U.S. in 2000, and has lived in Memphis for the last 25 years. She came on a visitor’s visa, applied for asylum, was denied, and issued a removal order. She appealed through the Violence Towards Women Act.
The suit say’s Lucy’s job, doctors, and immigration attorney are all in Memphis. So are her sons, one of whom is a U.S. citizen and starting college in Knox County. The drive to visit him passes through several counties, which is why District Attorneys General along that path are listed as defendants in the suit.
“She fears that she will be arrested, detained, and prosecuted under (the new law) because she has a final removal order and will fail to leave Tennessee,” the suit says.
Benjamin is 35, came to the U.S. “when he was very young.” His family applied for asylum but was denied. He was ordered to be removed as a teenager but applied to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and “has had DACA ever since.” He has lived in Memphis “for decades” and is in an “intensive training program until 2027.”
“He also visits Nashville, Knox County, and Fayette County,” the suit says. “He fears that he will be arrested, detained, and prosecuted under (the new law) because he has a final removal order and will fail to leave Tennessee.”
The groups say the new law is “part of a larger framework of new extreme anti-immigration state laws aimed at criminalizing noncitizens’ presence within a state either by punishing entry, or in this case, lack of departure.” One attorney said the law does “exactly what courts have warned states not to do for decades.”
“It is a cruel and unlawful attempt to punish people just for living in Tennessee, and the state has no authority to enact this new law,” said Peter McGraw, deputy legal director at the NILC.
