During the special session beginning on January 27, 2025, Gov. Lee has prioritized SB 6002/HB 6001, which would harm people who are immigrants across the state and violate the First Amendment rights of local elected officials by threatening them with felonies for voting to protect immigrants.
What would SB 6002/HB 6001 do?
- Criminalize and impede locally elected officials' ability to advocate for immigrants in their communities by making it a felony for them to vote in support of sanctuary city policies and allowing the attorney general to remove these local officials from office if they enact or adopt sanctuary city policies.
- Create a new division within the Department of Safety that would coordinate directly with the Trump Administration to enact Trump’s extremist, xenophobic political agenda.
- Undermine public safety and divert resources away from serious crimes by incentivizing local participation in the 287(g) immigration enforcement program. This program encourages law enforcement to step outside the scope of their jobs to act as immigration enforcement – raising even greater risks of racial profiling by law enforcement. Many of the program’s biggest critics are state and local law enforcement leaders who have seen first-hand in their communities how 287(g) hurts relationships and public safety.
- Prevent people who are not U.S. citizens from obtaining licenses and stigmatize lawful permanent residents and people authorized to be in the country for a specific time period with distinctly marked temporary licenses that amount to a scarlet letter. This would subject immigrants to discrimination, harassment and barriers to essential services like housing, employment and day-to-day activities.
This harmful law will cost taxpayers over $20 million dollars per year, plus additional unknown costs that would be borne by local governments, to carry out the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant agenda. Our state should funnel resources towards workforce development, making housing more affordable, and providing our students with a strong education, not doing the federal government’s job.
We all want safety and security, and an immigration system that functions. Polling shows the vast majority of Americans want a balanced approach to immigration that includes both humane border management and a pathway to citizenship for our longtime immigrant neighbors. But this legislation will do nothing to fix our immigration system, while simultaneously undermining public safety for everyone.
People who have immigrated to Tennessee seeking freedom and a better life are part of our families, communities, workplaces and places of worship. They contribute to our economy and communities. These anti-immigrant policies will inflict unimaginable harm on vulnerable people and they do not represent the values of our country nor our state.
CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATOR. Urge lawmakers to oppose SB 6002/HB 6001.
