A Tennessee state lawmaker introduced a bill to require law enforcement to send illegal migrants accused of minor crimes to sanctuary cities rather than deporting them to another country.
State Rep. Todd Warner, a Republican, filed the bill, the Tennessee Illegal Immigration Act, ahead of the legislative session. The proposal would also ensure that all law enforcement agencies report illegal migrants to federal immigration authorities.
Warner told Fox 17 that sending migrants to a sanctuary city could cost the state less than deporting them to their home countries, even if the federal government would eventually take on the deportation costs.
"It seeks to make Tennessee safer. It seeks to make the federal government, you know hold their feet to the fire and enforce immigration law and it seeks the state to recoup some costs back out of it," he said.
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Under the bill, if ICE fails to show up in 48 hours to pick up an illegal migrant who is detained, law enforcement would help send them to a sanctuary city. Warner said the arresting agency would be responsible for relocating the detained migrants.
Warner said this would be paid for by withholding money Tennessee generates for the federal government through the gas tax.
The lawmaker said he plans to add an amendment clarifying that the bill would only apply to illegal migrants charged with a minor offense. Violent criminals would still be subject to deportation.
"This is for victimless crimes. This is not for someone that has committed a terrible crime," Warner told Fox 17.
Hannah Smalley, the Advocacy and Education Manager at Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors, argues that the proposal would unnecessarily separate migrant families.
"The mere act of being transported away from your family is damaging," she told Fox 17. "This means that people, including people who have not been charged with crimes, are going to be facing these really punitive consequences just on the basis of their immigration status."
"When U.S. citizens commit crimes and we pay a fine or we go to jail," she added. "Immigrants are also doing that. So to then make this about someone's immigration status, which is totally separate from any kind of crime that they would have committed, is not productive to our community as a whole."
Warner said he still has to tweak the bill, but he is hoping it will receive bipartisan support in the legislature.
