Senate Republicans on Wednesday passed an immigration enforcement bill that establishes a central immigration enforcement office and adopted new driver’s licenses differentiating legal resident immigrants from U.S. citizens. 

Gov. Bill Lee and GOP leadership have said the measures are necessary to help President Donald Trump enforce his immigration policies. The Trump administration, however, has not explicitly directed states to take up any new policies at this time. 

The bill also criminalizes local officials, such as county commission or city council members, who vote for any policy considered a “sanctuary” measure. Tennessee already bans sanctuary policies, which generally limit how much local or state governments are willing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. 

The criminalization clause is an unprecedented step by the Republican legislative supermajority to control the actions of local officials.

Senate Judiciary Chair Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, was the lone Republican to vote against the measure. Gardenhire joined Democrats in warning against setting a “dangerous precedent.” 

General Assembly staff attorneys also cautioned lawmakers this week the bill could likely run afoul of the U.S. Constitution, given constitutional protections for elected officials speaking or taking action as a part of their legislative duties. 

“The reason that is a constitutional protection is to ensure that people are voting because they think it is the right thing to do,” said Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville. “To vote not based on pressure, not based on threats, but because they have some independence and integrity. We are literally threatening (elected officials) with criminal prosecution. This has been part of the common law since before we were a country.”

In recent years, Republican lawmakers have frequently passed legislation that conflicts with federal law, such as the abortion “trigger” law Tennessee passed that could not be enforced until constitutional protections were overturned. They now want to ban local officials from passing local policies that conflict with state law, even if the policies are unenforceable.

“The state legislature is the center of the universe, so there you go,” said bill co-sponsor Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, in an apparent tongue-in-cheek comment when asked why it was appropriate to criminalize local officials if state lawmakers regularly pass legislation that conflicts with federal laws.

Watson declined to answer questions about future implications of criminalizing local officials, or if he would find it appropriate for a Democratic-controlled legislature to criminalize local votes on issues like abortion. 

Watson said the bill is “consistent with what the American people voted for,” continually touting Trump’s immigration policies as a mandate for state lawmakers. 

“The feds can’t do it without the states helping them,” Watson said. “We’ve made it clear across Tennessee for the past several years that sanctuary city and sanctuary policies are illegal. This is all consistent with that. There’s no hypocrisy at all.”

The immigration enforcement vote came on the second day of the special legislative session. A final immigration vote in the House is set for Thursday, along with House and Senate votes on school vouchers.

Here’s what else you need to know about legislative business Wednesday: 

Bills rammed through at breakneck speed

Bills typically take two to four weeks to advance through the legislature’s robust committee system. But not so this week.

All seven bills filed for the special session – totaling nearly $1 billion in spending – passed through 17 committee hearings in a span of less than 24 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Republican committee members largely sat quiet during committee hearings: the bulk of questions came from Democrats, whom House committee chairs strictly time limited.

Despite the abbreviated committee hearings, Republican senators rejected multiple amendments offered by Democrats on the Senate floor at the behest of Watson, who argued they were already rejected in committee and should not be considered.

“Someone said earlier today that this bill has been rushed,” Watson said of the immigration enforcement measure before a final floor vote on Wednesday. “It has been through five committees. It has been debated. It has been vetted.”

Final voucher votes set for Thursday

Lee’s $447 million statewide school choice proposal passed a final committee on Wednesday morning, drawing bipartisan opposition. The bill passed the Senate Finance Committee in a 8 to 3 vote with Republican Sen. Page Walley, R-Savannah, opposing. 

Final votes on the bill are scheduled in both the House and Senate chambers on Thursday morning.

Yarbro warned the scholarship program could become a “long term entitlement,” if demand rises over the years. There are currently about 74,000 students enrolled in eligible private schools statewide, and the program provide scholarships to 20,000 students. With legislative approval, the program can grow by 5,000 seats per year ― and could balloon to $550 million or more to the state per year if expanded to include every eligible private school seat.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, dismissed Yarbro’s concerns as “scare tactics” about how the program could “bust the budget in future years” noting that any growth to the program requires legislative approval.

Only 51 of Tennessee’s 95 counties have an eligible private school, but Republican leaders have said that the program could spark new private institutions in the future.

Private school scholarships not ‘for disadvantaged families’

Republican leaders have consistently pitched a statewide school choice program as an opportunity to empower families without financial means to get their children out of failing schools.

Since the campaign trail in 2018, Lee has shared how helping a boy he mentored enroll in a charter school changed his view of education. 

“I witnessed the educational disparities across different incomes and ZIP codes, and I knew there were thousands of children like Adam who deserved better,” Lee wrote in a recent opinion column in The Tennessean. “Every child has a different life situation. So shouldn’t every family – not just the wealthy – have the freedom to choose the right education for their child?”

But for 10,000 scholarships set aside in Lee’s bill for low income recipients, the income cap is $170,000 for a family of four. Another 10,000 have no income limit. Tennessee’s median household income was $85,900 in 2024.

During debate on Wednesday, Johnson sought to reframe the pitch.

“I never once said this was a program designed for disadvantaged families, and I’ve never heard the governor say that,” Johnson responded. “This legislation has been marketed as a parental empowerment tool.”

Johnson said some have criticized the proposal, arguing that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison could theoretically apply for a scholarship. Johnson decried the notion as “ridiculous,” but did not deny that the program would be open to billionaires.

“We’re not going to penalize people who have been successful,” Johnson said. “We’re not going to penalize people who work hard and might do a little better than someone else. We want these to be universal.”

Protesters carried out of immigration enforcement committee

Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers were called into the House Immigration Committee Wednesday morning after Chair Chris Todd, R-Madison County, said a group in the audience was being disruptive.

A small group of protesters sat at the front of the committee room during debate over the immigration enforcement bill, holding signs and occassionally snapping to indicate their support of something said.

Todd had previously admonished the audience for attempting to “participate” in the committee hearing, though the group was relatively low key in comparison to previous committee hearings. But after another comment was made from the crowd, Todd shut down the meeting and ordered their removal. 

The women criticized the ejection as arbitrary after another spectator, Alison Beale, admitted to making the remark and offered to leave. The group refused to leave their seats, arguing they’d done nothing wrong, so a group of troopers physically lifted and carried the three women out of the committee room.

They were not arrested or charged.