Take action to protect immigrant families ✊

Today, the Tennessee General Assembly passed HB6001/SB6002: the overreaching, dangerous immigration agenda Governor Lee slammed through a special legislative session in a mere three days. The provisions in these laws will have a wave of harmful effects on all Tennesseans.

Read more about these dangerous laws below, then contact your lawmakers:

  • Use the form to the right to call Governor Bill Lee and tell him you don't support these anti-immigrant attacks that only seek to divide and criminalize our communities.

  • Use the form to the right to call your local council person and urge them not to participate in the 287(g) program (more information below).

  • Click here to look up your sheriff and urged them not to participate in the 287(g) program (more information below).

Here's what these dangerous laws mean for all Tennesseans:

  • Criminalize local elected officials for taking a vote in support of “sanctuary policies”: instead of letting local elected officials represent the will of their constituents and exercise their First Amendment rights to vote their beliefs, they are striking down free speech and silencing dissent, violating our constitutional rights.

  • Establish a Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division: Instead of using our tax dollars on better roads, stronger schools, and the services we need, they're spending them on a state government office to do a federal government job, threatening the progress of our state.

  • Incentivize local governments to participate in federal programs like 287(g), which deputizes local law enforcement with immigration enforcement powers: Instead of letting local law enforcement officers do their job to investigate and prevent crime, they are distracting them with instructions to carry out federal immigration enforcement, making us all less safe.

  • Restrict standard driver’s licenses to U.S. citizens, requiring non-citizens, including legal permanent residents, to obtain temporary licenses marked with a "visually distinctive" identifier: Instead of letting eligible Tennesseans get their licenses as normal, they are creating new and expensive systems that will only lead to increased racial profiling and fewer people seeking licenses.

TIRRC Votes