Suit Challenges Tenn. Law Against Harboring Illegals

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By    |   Wednesday, 02 July 2025 10:28 PM EDT ET

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against a Tennessee law signed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee in May that criminalizes providing shelter to illegal immigrants.

Senate Bill 392, which took effect Tuesday, created a felony in Tennessee for human smuggling, which the law classifies as concealing, harboring, or shielding people determined by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be in the country illegally, for financial gain, The Washington Post reported.

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 in the state. They alleged that the law is unconstitutionally vague, oversteps federal authority to regulate immigration, and could place churches, landlords, and immigrant communities in the state's crosshairs.

"This law is not just harmful, it's unconstitutional," Elizabeth Cruikshank, senior counsel for the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law, which is a party to the lawsuit, said in a news release. "Immigration enforcement is a responsibility of the federal government, not something that states can pick up and weaponize however they choose."

The complaint also stated that the law infringes on the First Amendment freedom of the church's members to express their faith by providing services to migrants.

"These kinds of state laws have the possibility to be really destabilizing to communities because they create an atmosphere of fear for people about the status of immigrants within their communities," Bill Powell, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told the Post.

Tennessee state Sen. Brent Taylor and Rep. Chris Todd, both Republicans who sponsored the bill — no Democrats voted for it — said it was aimed at stopping human trafficking, not prosecuting landlords or religious groups.

"I don't believe that the plaintiffs in this case are intentionally wanting to evade immigration officials … and they're not being paid for that purpose," Taylor told the Post. "Then they're not going to be prosecuted under this statute."

Todd said in a statement to the Post that "this new law builds on our efforts to prevent human trafficking and improve public safety by criminalizing the harboring of someone in the country illegally for financial gain. I'm confident this commonsense measure will easily withstand this unfounded and politically motivated lawsuit."

Prosecution could be triggered under the law by transporting a known illegal alien to hide him or her from law enforcement. Other triggers would be concealing, harboring, or shielding from detection a known illegal alien.

Critics argue that the law would prevent landlords from renting to illegal immigrants or churches from giving aid to them. But Taylor said the law is aimed at "coyotes" who smuggle illegal immigrants into the U.S. for a fee.

"We weren't looking to penalize families traveling; we were looking to try to get people who were actually smuggling people into the country and into the state for personal financial gain or commercial advantage," he said, according to Breitbart, adding the law intends to stop people from "taking advantage of an illegal alien."

Michael Katz

Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.

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A class-action lawsuit has been filed against a Tennessee law signed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee in May that criminalizes providing shelter to illegal immigrants.
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