A Tennessee state senator sponsored legislation requiring law enforcement to send illegal migrants charged with minor crimes to sanctuary communities rather than deporting them to another nation.
State Rep. Todd Warner, a Republican, introduced the Tennessee Illegal Immigration Act before the legislative session. The measure would also require all law enforcement agencies to report unlawful migrants to federal immigration authorities.
Warner told Fox 17 that transferring migrants to a sanctuary city might cost the state less than deporting them to their home countries, even if the federal government eventually pays for the deportation fees.
“It aims to make Tennessee safer. It tries to hold the federal government accountable for enforcing immigration law, while also allowing the state to collect some costs,” he explained.
Asylum-seeking migrants wait at a temporary, mountainous encampment to be processed after crossing the border with Mexico on Friday, February 2, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, California. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File.)
According to the measure, if ICE fails to pick up an illegal migrant apprehended within 48 hours, law enforcement will assist in transporting them to a sanctuary city. Warner stated that the arresting agency would be responsible for moving the detained migrants.
Warner stated that this would be paid for by withholding money Tennessee collects for the federal government through the gas tax.
The legislator stated that he intends to introduce an amendment emphasizing that the bill will only apply to illegal migrants charged with a minor violation. Violent criminals would still face deportation.
According to the Tennessee Illegal Immigration Act, if ICE fails to pick up an illegal migrant captured within 48 hours, law enforcement will assist in transporting them to a sanctuary city. (Smith Collection, Gado/Getty Images)
“This is for victimless offenses. “This is not for someone who committed a heinous crime,” Warner told Fox 17.
Hannah Smalley, Advocacy and Education Manager at Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors, believes the idea will unnecessarily separate migrant families.
“The mere act of being transported away from your family is damaging,” she said on Fox 17. “This means that people, including people who have not been charged with crimes, are going to be facing these punitive consequences just based on their immigration status.”
When US citizens commit crimes, we either pay a fine or go to jail,” she explained. “Immigrants are also doing this. So making this about someone’s immigration status, which is completely apart from whatever crime that they could have committed, is not beneficial to our community as a whole.”
Warner said he still needs to adjust the law, but he hopes it will gain bipartisan support in the legislature.
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