Tennessee State Representative Lee Reeves (R-Franklin) discussed his efforts to help provide the state with more tools to conduct an “all of the above” approach to tackling illegal immigration through the introduction of three bills filed in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Reeves, a freshman representative, is sponsoring three pieces of legislation this legislative session focused on immigration – HB0177, HB0749, and HJR0180.
HB0177, which will be heard in both the House State & Local Government Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, would make it a criminal offense for individuals who are already in the U.S. illegally to enter the State of Tennessee.
The bill would empower state law enforcement to charge the individuals violating the statute with misdemeanor and felony crimes and serve them with notices to leave Tennessee in 72 hours.
Reeves said the bill is about giving the State of Tennessee “more tools” to properly address illegal aliens in the state, noting how states do not have the power to deport migrants as the federal government does.
“That’s all we can really do as a state. We can’t deport…Provided the federal government is actually doing its job, we will rely on other agreements with them to get that done, but this is for when that possibly goes away,” Reeves explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Reeves’ second bill addressing illegal immigration, HB0749, is also set to be debated in the House State & Local Government Committee on Tuesday. The bill would make it a Class B misdemeanor offense of operating a motor vehicle in Tennessee with an invalid driver license and would designate out-of-state driver licenses issued exclusively to illegal aliens as invalid driver licenses.
Noting how states including Connecticut and Delaware issue driver licenses exclusively to illegal aliens, Reeves said his bill would make such licenses “null and void” in Tennessee.
“It would be like they don’t have a driver’s license at all…Florida passed something similar to that back in 2023 and has not been challenged in the courts to my knowledge,” Reeves added.
Reeves’ third piece of legislation sponsored this session addressing immigration, HJR0180, will also be debated in the House State & Local Government Committee on Tuesday. The joint resolution simply urges the federal government to “streamline” the legal immigration process.”
Reeves said by urging the federal government to streamline the legal immigration process, he believes it would ease some of the pressure of illegal entries by individuals who are genuinely seeking a better life in the U.S.
“We actually want legal immigrants in this country. We’re an immigrant country. We want it to be cheaper, we want it to take less time, but we still want it to be safe and secure. So HJR0180 urges the federal government to finally get it right so that people can actually legally immigrate here, and we think that may take some of the pressure off of some of the people trying to get here illegally,” Reeves said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Migrant Caravan” by Pueblo Sin Fonteras.
