A Tennessee proposal to ban undocumented immigrants from receiving local benefits will now come with reporting requirements for the agencies that deny them.
The statehouse approved the legislation this week, alongside other bills in a legislative package designed to bring Trump’s immigration policies to the state level. One measure that would’ve required all hospitals, police departments and schools to report the number of interactions they had with undocumented patients or students was scrapped — but parts of that policy made it into the final version of HB1710 / SB1915.
Under the bill, state and local aid agencies — like affordable housing projects and public health clinics — would have to verify their beneficiaries’ legal status and report the number of people without legal status who may use their services.
Tennessee Republicans have pushed for ways to track how many undocumented people there are in the state and how many may be using taxpayer-funded services. A controversial bill from last year that would’ve allowed public schools to reject undocumented students was amended to track the number of undocumented students in Tennessee schools. That still requires schools to verify immigration status for all of their students, something Democrats argue puts strain on staffers who are already overburdened.
Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, argued on the Senate floor that, as it related to public services, the bill would create challenges to people in the process of obtaining citizenship.
“Those rules can change by the week, by the month. They deal with asylum applications and pending court proceedings,” Yarbro said. “This is something that slows down services for every Tennessean in the name of collecting data and trying to make assessments that folks are not trained to make.”
Democrats in the House opposed the bill over concerns it would discourage immigrants from seeking routine medical care and potentially open local governments up to lawsuits over racial profiling. The bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Dennis Powers, R-Jacksboro, said that the cost will be negligible.
“Training someone to check an ID is a very easy process. They do it when you go buy alcohol. When you get on a plane, you have to show ID,” Powers said.
The bill now heads to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his signature.
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