A state bill that would criminalize being an undocumented person in Tennessee passed the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee on Wednesday in a 6-2 vote.
House Bill 1704, sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland), as he pitched it, “would literally make it illegal to be illegal in the state of Tennessee.” The legislation would make it a class-A misdemeanor for any undocumented person 18 or older to intentionally enter or attempt to enter Tennessee or be present in the state following a final order of removal.
If passed and signed into law, the bill would take effect July 1 and could see violators jailed for up to 11 months and 29 days. The legislation, however, is contingent on future changes to federal law or a potential overturning of the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Arizona vs. United States, which dealt with a state’s ability to enforce immigration laws.
“This common-sense legislation respects constitutional boundaries while ensuring we are prepared if states' authority is restored," Lamberth said of his bill during Wednesday’s hearing.
The bill’s Senate counterpart is sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) and is one of several GOP bills pitched as an effort to “demagnetize Tennessee from illegal immigration.”
Verification, reporting requirements part of proposed bills filed
The House subcommittee heard testimony from two people in opposition to the bill, including Allen Shao King, legal director for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. King argued that the bill “would create a logistical nightmare for local law enforcement offices.”
“To place this burden on local law enforcement is tantamount to requiring them to all have an immigration attorney on standby, and we have enough attorneys in this room to understand that would be an incredibly expensive undertaking,” King said. “The other issue is that this bill jeopardizes the trust that local law enforcement agencies have sought to foster in immigrant communities.”
When questioned by Rep. Lowell Russell (R-Vonore) about the bill’s potential burden on law enforcement officials, King said his testimony was not based on a specific conversation, but generally “through analysis and experience from working with law enforcement.”
Reps. Jason Powell (D-Nashville) and Gabby Salinas (D-Memphis) were the legislation’s two no votes. The two Democrats questioned the need for a bill that mirrors federal law and voiced concern about the threat of potential litigation — something dismissed by Lamberth, who said the bill’s fiscal note reads that “any impact related to potential litigation is estimated to be not significant.”
Lamberth cited the recently released Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference’s “2025 Immigration Report,” which claims that 41 homicides across the state were reportedly perpetrated by “persons not lawfully present” in the U.S. — including alleged charges of criminal homicide, first-degree murder, second-degree murder and vehicular homicide.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation crime data for 2024, the most recent year of published data, reports 587 cases of murder in 2024 — a year that saw a nearly 20 percent decrease in murder compared to 2023.
“While, yes, investigating a new misdemeanor is a responsibility for law enforcement, and we expect them to do it properly and have all the facts before them before they charge someone, these crimes [committed by undocumented people] cost far in excess, both in lives and finances, than anything you describe, sir,” Lamberth told King.
“This is just more of the supermajority’s anti-immigrant agenda that wants us to fight with our neighbors and blame immigrants in order to distract us from their real agenda: giving handouts to wealthy corporations by cutting funding for schools and health care,” says Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of TIRRC Votes, in a release following the vote.
The bill is set to be heard in the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 18.
