Controversial legislation that would have banned undocumented students in Tennessee from attending public school or charged them tuition has effectively been scrapped.
A House subcommittee has advanced a rewritten version of the bill removing those provisions and adding language that instead requires schools to track the immigration status of students.
House Bill 793 was first introduced in 2025 and became one of the most highly debated pieces of legislation last year, seeing numerous protests and the arrest of protester Lynne McFarland. The bill was largely opposed by Democrats and several Republicans, and was seen as a potential challenge to the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, which upheld the right to public education for students regardless of immigration status.
Legislation heading for Senate floor following discussion of its financial impact
The original version of the bill passed the state Senate last year but stalled as it was being considered in House committees. The bill’s sponsor, House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland), said the holdback was due to concerns that the legislation could result in the loss of $1.1 billion in federal funds.
Lamberth told the committee on Wednesday that he has been in conversation with the Trump administration regarding the potential loss of funds and had not yet received a clear answer.
“There’s no way that I want to bring a bill forward that would endanger $1.1 billion while we are trying to add additional funds in for K-12 public education,” Lamberth said, noting that the updated bill would not put the funds at risk.
After being ejected from the House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee meeting, protester Joely Ford yells at lawmakers through a door, March 4, 2026
The new version of the bill focuses on data. An amendment from Lamberth removes the bill’s previous language and would now require schools only to document the immigration and citizenship statuses of students. Schools would report the data to the Tennessee Department of Education, but identifying information like names and addressed would be omitted.
Several people testified before the committee and expressed their opposition to the bill, including Nashville-based immigration attorney Johnny Epstein.
“This bill would force thousands of school staff across Tennessee to act as local immigration judges,” Epstein said. “Immigration status does not neatly divide into lawful versus unlawful. ... That’s just not how it works.”
Knox County School Board member Katherine Bike also spoke against the bill, arguing that schools are not equipped to collect such information and that hiring extra staff might be needed, which could cause schools to cut funds from other programs. Bike cited a recent report from the Immigration Research Initiative, which found that the legislation could cost Tennessee school districts approximately $55 million.
Others who testified said that while the reported information would be anonymous, they are worried the data would be used to target certain districts that have large immigrant communities.
The bill passed 9-3 in the House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee Wednesday morning as protesters booed and jeered from both inside the packed committee room and outside in the hallway. The dissenting votes came from Rep. Jesse Chism (D-Memphis), Rep. Johnny Shaw (D-Bolivar) and Rep. Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis).
Rep. Justin Pearson gathers with protesters following the House Finance Ways and Means Committee’s approval of House Bill 793, March 4, 2026
Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) gathered with protesters outside the committee room following the vote.
“Do not quit,” he told the packed hallway. “The fact that the bill had to get changed was not because [Lamberth] had a change of heart. It's because you keep showing up. It's because hundreds of you keep speaking up. So yes, this data bill — I think it's still gonna die — I don't think it's gonna make it to the House floor and pass. But remember the legislation that you saw last year. That wasn't the same bill, and the only reason that that changed was because of you.”
The bill has also been condemned by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, members of which held a press conference following Wednesday’s vote.
Verification, reporting requirements part of proposed bills filed
“No matter how you amend these bills, they are cruel, discriminatory and a violation of privacy meant to scare the immigrant community and violate all of our rights,” said TIRRC Votes advocacy manager Selah Torralba. “So while today we are disappointed and angry at the passage of HB 793 in this morning's House Finance subcommittee, and it moves on to House full finance subcommittee, that does not mean we are giving up, nor giving in to the fear and division they are sowing in this legislature.”
Lamberth’s bill comes in addition to a sweeping immigration package — crafted with the help of the Trump administration — that was proposed by Republican lawmakers at the start of this year’s session. The package includes bills requiring local cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and restrictions on driver’s licenses for immigrants, legislation that continues to advance through committees.
Another Lamberth-sponsored bill progressing through the legislature would formally make it a crime to be an undocumented person in Tennessee.
