Charitable organizations and nonprofits in Tennessee that provide housing to illegal immigrants will face civil liability for their criminal actions, should a court determine the charities acted negligently through their support, under legislation passed on Wednesday and sent to Governor Bill Lee to be signed into law.
Senate Bill (SB) 227 by State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) was passed earlier this month, and on Wednesday the State House passed Taylor’s version of the legislation along partisan lines, with 70 votes in favor and 23 votes against.
Once signed by Lee, the legislation will modify Tennessee tort law to make charities and nonprofits who knowingly provide housing to illegal immigrants, who in turn go on to be convicted of crimes, liable to be sued in civil court by the victims of the illegal immigrant.
It would specifically modify the law to state, “a charitable organization that provides housing to a person who the charitable organization knows is unlawfully present in the United States may be held liable for a loss, damages, injury, or death resulting from a criminal offense committed by the person who is unlawfully present in the United States while the person is receiving housing services from the charitable organization if the charitable organization’s conduct in providing housing constitutes negligence, gross negligence, or willful and wanton misconduct.”
Exceptions are included for charities which operate homeless shelters, who may be unlikely to gather such information about those they house.
State Representative Rusty Grills (R-Newbern), who introduced the companion version of the legislation in the State House, House Bill (HB) 811, said on the House Floor that the bill was proposed for crime victims to seek civil judgments against non-governmental organizations.
“What we’re doing with this bill is anyone who is a victim of a crime committed by an illegal alien would have a private right of action against any NGO (non-governmental organization) that has assisted the illegal alien with housing in the community,” said Grills.
Charities raked in billions during the illegal immigration crisis under the Biden administration, including Catholic Charities USA. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently ended its longtime partnership with the federal government over spending cuts imposed by the Trump administration, while illegal border crossings have reached their lowest level in decades.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Catholic Charities USA Migrant Support” by Catholic Charities USA.
Finally, some accountability.