Governor measure Lee’s immigration enforcement plan is moving quickly through the Tennessee Legislature, but on Tuesday, a part of the measure that calls for arresting municipal leaders who support immigration sanctuary laws came under fire.
A clause that makes it a Class E felony for public officials who vote to adopt or implement sanctuary laws is part of the governor’s comprehensive plan to work with the Trump Administration on mass detentions and deportations of immigrants. Sanctuary laws may protect unauthorized immigrants and restrict their ability to cooperate with law enforcement.
Every public official who votes in support of a sanctuary law, policy, or non-binding resolution faces the felony charge, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in jail and a $3,000 fine.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republican chair, Sen. Todd Gardenhire, denounced the clause on Tuesday as a “dangerous precedent.”
“We are a Republic, and a Republic is one that we elect people to vote the way they feel like is best for the district, the city, county or the state,” he stated.
“If we set the precedent of penalizing any elected official for voting their conscience, whether it’s good or bad, then we set a dangerous precedent for the future,” he stated.
Democrats described the clause as a “slippery slope” that might be used to punish votes on any contentious issue in future legislation.
“It is alarming we are sitting here talking about felonizing elected officials taking votes on behalf of their constituency,” Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Nashville Democrat, stated. “Boy, this is a slippery slope and be careful what you wish for if you vote for this.”
Among the Republicans who control the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gardenhire was a minority member. Before voting to take the bill forward in the legislature, they swiftly thwarted Gardenhire’s attempts to change it to eliminate criminal sanctions.
A 2019 Tennessee bill that aimed to stop local governments from establishing sanctuary city status—as several other Democrat-led towns throughout the nation have done—prohibits sanctuary policies already.
According to the 2019 Tennessee law, the state has the authority to refuse money for infractions and residents have the right to bring civil lawsuits against any county that adopts sanctuary practices.
According to Ken Paulson, director of Middle Tennessee State University’s Free Speech Center, “the state’s remedies were to deny cities grants and to seek a court order when it banned sanctuary cities.”
“Here the state is trying to control the actions of duly-elected officials through the police power,” he stated. “That’s a dramatic escalation.”
There isn’t another state statute that threatens to penalize public officials for their voting behavior, according to a national government accountability expert.
Dan Vicuña, director of redistricting and representation for Common Cause, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., stated, “It’s an unprecedented power grab and criminalization of political discourse.”
Additionally, the legislature’s own lawyer and several local legal experts suggested that the clause might be “constitutionally suspect.”
“Generally speaking Tennessee courts have found legislative bodies have legislative immunity for acts that serve part of their legislative function and that legislative immunity extends to local legislative bodies,” Elizabeth Insogna, a Legislative attorney, stated the committee.
According to John Vile, a political science professor and dean of Middle Tennessee State University’s University Honors College, “lawmakers should heed Article 1” of the Tennessee Constitution, which lays out a “Declaration of Rights” for residents and their elected officials.
Republicans, however, pointed out that the criminal sanctions target elected officials who try to enact laws that are already illegal in Tennessee.
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Stephen Crump, executive director of the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference, said that only two laws now in effect penalize politicians for acting in their official roles.
A long-standing provision permits county commissioners who neglect to provide sufficient funding for local jails to face criminal prosecution. If other lawmakers’ votes break official misconduct statutes, they could face charges.
The criminal penalties “reflect the overwhelming belief of our constituents, who have made it clear that they expect us to work in lockstep with the Trump administration to enforce federal immigration laws,” according to a statement sent by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson via email.
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According to Johnson’s statement, judges will eventually determine how to balance the law if the plan is approved.
