State Republican leaders kicked off this year’s legislative session in January by unveiling a sweeping immigration agenda they said would make Tennessee a national model for immigration enforcement.
Four months later, GOP lawmakers have passed more than a dozen pieces of legislation that impose new immigration verification, reporting and enforcement responsibilities on state and local law enforcement officers, public health providers, government social workers and drivers license issuers.
Largely along party lines, the Republican supermajority has approved measures that include making illegal immigration a state crime, forcing sheriffs into cooperative agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and penalizing truck drivers who don’t speak fluent English. One key measure, requiring student immigration status data-gathering at public schools, failed this year.
Tennessee Republicans have drawn a hard line on illegal immigration, mirroring the rhetoric of the Trump administration, which worked with GOP lawmakers to craft the package of bills.
“We welcome legal immigrants, but if they come here illegally, then they need to go back,” state Rep. Dennis Powers (R-Jacksboro) said during debate last week over a bill that would leave public health workers vulnerable to criminal prosecution for not reporting patients without legal status. That legislation is awaiting the signature of Gov. Bill Lee.
“They can get $1,000 and a plane ticket home. If they have an emergency situation, they will be treated and released, and then whoever treats them for the emergency has to report at the end of the month that, hey, we treated an illegal person, and that person has a right to go home.”
Tennessee Republicans unveil ‘Immigration 2026’ agenda as ‘model’ for rest of nation
The legislation passed by the Tennessee General Assembly is intended to serve as a blueprint for other states, House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said.
The slate of bills were hashed out between Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton and White House advisor Stephen Miller
The slate of bills were hashed out during a series of meetings in late 2025 and early 2026 between Sexton and White House advisor Stephen Miller. Miller is widely considered the architect of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy.
“The Trump Administration has led a government-wide, transformational effort to remake how we address public safety in America,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson said via email in response to a request for comment from Miller about Tennessee’s immigration legislation. Jackson cited crime reduction statistics as a result of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown that could not be immediately verified.
“It’s not surprising that states across the country want to imitate President Trump’s successful policies on a state level. And the American people would be well served if they did,” she said.
Democrats in committee hearings and on the Senate and House floors pushed back, questioning the constitutionality of legislation they did not have the votes to stop.
“It is utterly predictable that we are walking into constitutional litigation,” said Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) referencing a bill making it a state crime to be present in Tennessee without legal immigration status. The legislation was signed into law by Lee last week.
Advocates for Tennessee’s immigrant communities have criticized Republicans for scapegoating immigrants at the expense of enacting legislation to benefit the state as a whole.
“They think that they can point the finger at our immigrant neighbors, but we know that it’s those in power, like themselves and their billionaire friends, who leverage all the power and are getting richer while the rest of us struggle to put food on the table and pay the bills,” said Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director for Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Vote.
Ultimately, the legislation could impact any Tennessean engaged in routine interactions with the state and local government: seeking breast or cervical cancer screenings at local public health departments, applying for childcare assistance at a state agency or being pulled over for speeding may require proof of citizenship or legal immigration status — and the threat of being reported to state and federal authorities without it — under the 2026 legislation.
While Gov. Bill Lee has yet to sign some of the legislation into law, vetoes are not anticipated from the second-term governor, who has expressed general support in partnering with the federal government in immigration enforcement but remained largely silent on the specific bills introduced this year.
Illegal immigration now a state crime
Being present in Tennessee without legal immigration status is now a state crime in legislation Lee signed into law last week that asserts the state’s authority in enforcing federal immigration laws.
Tennessee joins at least five other states — Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Louisiana and Georgia — in enacting legislation that could serve as a direct challenge to the 2012 Supreme Court Arizona vs United States decision preventing states from enacting their own immigration enforcement laws.
The Tennessee law, which takes effect July 1, creates a Class A misdemeanor offense for an adult to be present in Tennessee more than 90 days after receiving a deportation order, punishable up to a year in jail. Under existing state law requiring local jails to cooperate with federal authorities in verifying immigration status in Tennessee jails, arrests under the law would result in reporting individuals to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It is utterly predictable that we are walking into constitutional litigation.
Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville
Mandatory cooperation between sheriffs and ICE
All Tennessee sheriffs will be required to enter into formal agreements with ICE to enforce federal immigration law in legislation that is awaiting Lee’s signature.
The second Trump administration has pushed for sheriff and police departments nationwide to enter into the so-called 287(g) agreements that give local law enforcement expanded immigration enforcement powers.
While 49 Tennessee sheriffs have already entered the agreements, dozens of others have not, despite financial incentives from the state and federal government. In Nashville, local leaders including Sheriff Daron Hall are opposed to the agreements he says break trust with communities and hinder law enforcement.
Other counties have shied away from participation in immigration enforcement activities that divert officers from local crime-fighting.
Bill requiring citizenship database checks for voter registration heads to governor’s desk
The agreements are tiered: a jail enforcement model requires verifying immigration status of those already in custody; a separate model empowers local law enforcement to serve immigration warrants; and a task force agreement gives law enforcement the power to make immigration arrests as part of their day-to-day responsibilities. The Tennessee legislation gives sheriffs the option of entering any of the three agreements by Jan. 1, or risk losing state funding.
On the road
Headed to the governor’s desk is legislation that creates a new misdemeanor crime for driving without legal status in Tennessee. Like the legislation creating a new state crime for illegal immigration, the measure in practice would serve as a direct pipeline to immigration detention and deportation.
Lawmakers also singled out commercial-license holders, such as long-haul truck drivers, who cannot speak fluent English. The legislation awaiting Lee’s signature gives law enforcement officers the power to place drivers without fluency out of service.
A third measure requiring drivers to take a written drivers’ license test in English, after an 18 month grace period passed the General Assembly over objections from international businesses. It is also awaiting Lee’s signature.
Public health reporting of immigration status
Legislation requiring any state or local government department, including public health clinics, to verify immigration status of adults seeking aid and to report individuals without legal immigration status who have received “public benefits” to the state’s Centralized Immigration Enforcement Agency.
The legislation does not preempt federal law requiring hospitals or local health departments from providing emergency care or legally mandated communicable disease treatment. But, if signed by Gov. Bill Lee, government employees would risk being arrested if they did not report the names of patients they had cared for to the state.
Local public health clinics are already required to verify immigration status but Republican sponsors of the legislation said some local health departments have skirted the law.
More secrecy
Lawmakers also approved legislation to keep the names of federal, state and local officers conducting immigration enforcement confidential if the release could post the risk of harm, as determined by a law enforcement agency chief. The legislation, signed by Lee, takes effect July 1.