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| - Tennessee Senate Bill 6002/House Bill 6001 makes it a felony for local government officials to vote in support of "sanctuary" policies protecting immigrants in the country illegally. President Donald Trump's administration has taken steps to weaken so-called sanctuary laws that limit a local government's cooperation with federal immigration authorities, meaning this bill does attempt to criminalize voting against part of Trump's immigration policy agenda.
The bill does not include a blanket directive that criminalizes voting against all of Trump's immigration policies, nor does it criminalize votes from everyday people. Gov. Bill Lee had not signed the bill into law, as of this writing.
On Jan. 29, 2025, social media users began claiming that Tennessee lawmakers had passed legislation that makes local officials subject to felony charges should they vote against Trump's immigration policies.
Users on X (archived) spread the rumor, including Tennessee state Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Democrat, who claimed the bill would send elected officials to jail for not supporting Trump's immigration policies. Campbell's post — which says the bill passed out of committee, a step before going to the entire Senate — had over 55,000 likes as of this writing (archived).
We passed a bill in committee yesterday that felonizes elected officials if they vote against Trump's immigration policy. Let that sink in. Duly elected officials will go to jail- will have a criminal record- if they do not vote for and support Trump's policies.
— Senator Heidi Campbell (@Campbell4TN) January 29, 2025
Some claims were unclear on whether elected officials or everyday voters were subject to this purported bill. For example, Snopes readers searched our website for any news on a "Tennessee Senate bill making it a felony to vote against Trump's immigration policy." News outlets also made similar claims, including Newsweek (archived), which published a story headlined: "Tennessee Bill Would Prohibit Voting Against Trump Immigration Policies."
These claims are a mixture of truths and falsehood. Tennessee state lawmakers passed a bill that makes it a felony for local officials to vote in support of so-called sanctuary policies that protect immigrants in the country illegally by limiting a local government's cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Trump vowed to end sanctuary cities on the campaign trail and has taken steps to weaken to sanctuary laws. However, the Tennessee bill does not explicitly make it a felony for elected officials to vote against any of Trump's other immigration policies.
Thus, the bill does make it a felony for elected officials to vote against part of Trump's immigration policies, but not all of his policies. It also does not make it a felony for everyday Tennesseans to vote against immigration policies set by Trump.
The bill has passed both legislative chambers but the state's governor, Republican Bill Lee, must also sign the legislation before it becomes law — which he is likely to do, given that it is part of his policy agenda.
Tennessee's Immigration Enforcement Bill
Senate Bill 6002/House Bill 6001 makes it a Class E felony for local government officials to vote in support of sanctuary policies, which prevent local law enforcement from coordinating immigration enforcement with federal officers. A Class E felony is punishable by one to six years in prison and/or a fine of up to $3,000. The state Senate passed the bill Jan. 29, 2025, and the state House passed it Jan. 30.
Here's the exact language from the bill:
SECTION 6. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 7-68-103, is amended by designating the existing language as subsection (a) and adding the following new subsection (b): (b) It is unlawful for an official to violate subsection (a). A violation of subsection (a) is a Class E felony. For purposes of this subsection (b), each official who, in their capacity as a member of the governing body of a local government, votes in the affirmative to adopt a sanctuary policy is in violation of this section.
The bill summary on the Tennessee Legislature's website explains the state's current laws against sanctuary policies and what the bill's text adds to those laws:
Present law prohibits state and local governmental entities and officials from adopting or enacting a sanctuary policy. A state or local governmental entity that adopts or enacts a sanctuary policy is ineligible to enter into a grant contract with the department of economic and community development until the sanctuary policy is repealed, rescinded, or otherwise no longer in effect. This bill creates a Class E felony, punishable by a sentence of imprisonment not less than one year nor more than six years and a possible fine not to exceed $3,000, or both, if a person violates such prohibitions. Additionally, this bill provides that each official, in their capacity as a member of the governing body of a local government, who votes in the affirmative to adopt a sanctuary policy is also in violation.
According to an announcement from Lee's office detailing his policy agenda, SB 6002/HB 6001 is the primary vehicle for his immigration enforcement policies. The bill aligns itself with Trump's immigration policies, such as by incentivizing local government support for federal immigration enforcement — but nothing else in the legislation involves criminalizing local officials' votes. The legislation also does not explicitly name Trump or his administration.
Trump's Policies Against Sanctuary Laws
While on the campaign trail, Trump vowed to end sanctuary cities — places where sanctuary laws are in effect — during a Fox News town hall with host Harris Faulkner. Here's the exchange:
Trump: First of all, we are going to end all sanctuary cities immediately. Because they're really—
Faulkner: Is that an executive order you do that with?
Trump: I can do it with an executive order. You'll have to do it with an executive order.
A video of this exchange is available on Fox News' website (at 2:20).
On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump signed an executive order denying sanctuary cities federal funding. The relevant part of this order is below (emphasis ours):
Sec. 17. Sanctuary Jurisdictions. The Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, to the maximum extent possible under law, evaluate and undertake any lawful actions to ensure that so-called "sanctuary" jurisdictions, which seek to interfere with the lawful exercise of Federal law enforcement operations, do not receive access to Federal funds. Further, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall evaluate and undertake any other lawful actions, criminal or civil, that they deem warranted based on any such jurisdiction's practices that interfere with the enforcement of Federal law.
Thus, Tennessee's bill prohibiting local officials from voting in support of sanctuary cities also, by definition, prohibits local officials from voting against part of Trump's immigration agenda. However, Trump has other immigration policies — he has promised, for example, "the largest domestic deportation operation in American history" — and while many of these immigration policies are connected to his sanctuary law policies, the Tennessee bill does not explicitly prevent lawmakers from voting against these other policies.
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