Tennessee has enacted a groundbreaking regulation that makes harboring unlawful immigrants a punishable crime.
Signed into impact by Governor Invoice Lee in Might 2025, Senate Invoice 392, which took impact July 1, sends a transparent message: Tennessee is not going to be a secure haven for many who flout federal immigration legal guidelines.
The brand new regulation targets landlords, enterprise house owners, and “sanctuary sympathizers” who knowingly harbor unlawful aliens in trade for hire or providers — a Class E felony punishable by as much as six years in jail and fines as much as $3,000.
For circumstances involving kids below 13, the penalty escalates to a Class A felony, with potential sentences of as much as 60 years.
A coalition together with the Southeastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, TIRRC, ICAP, and the American Immigration Council has sued in federal courtroom to dam the regulation, citing First Modification and Supremacy Clause violations.
Extra from Newsmax:
A coalition led by the Tennessee-based Southeastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America filed the lawsuit on June 20, joined by a Nashville landlord and a Mexican immigrant within the state. They alleged that the regulation is unconstitutionally imprecise, oversteps federal authority to manage immigration, and will place church buildings, landlords, and immigrant communities within the state’s crosshairs.
“This regulation is not only dangerous, it’s unconstitutional,” Elizabeth Cruikshank, senior counsel for the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Safety at Georgetown Regulation, which is a celebration to the lawsuit, stated in a information launch. “Immigration enforcement is a duty of the federal authorities, not one thing that states can choose up and weaponize nonetheless they select.”
The grievance additionally acknowledged that the regulation infringes on the First Modification freedom of the church’s members to specific their religion by offering providers to migrants.
“These sorts of state legal guidelines have the chance to be actually destabilizing to communities as a result of they create an environment of concern for individuals concerning the standing of immigrants inside their communities,” Invoice Powell, an lawyer for the plaintiffs, instructed the Publish.
Tennessee state Sen. Brent Taylor and Rep. Chris Todd, each Republicans who sponsored the invoice — no Democrats voted for it — stated it was aimed toward stopping human trafficking, not prosecuting landlords or spiritual teams.
