The Tennessee State Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted to advance legislation that could see lawsuits brought against charitable organizations that knowingly provide housing to illegal immigrants convicted of crimes in the state.
Senate Bill (SB) 227 by State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) was forwarded from the judiciary committee with five votes in favor, one vote against, and one lawmaker voting present, paving the way for the Senate Calendar Committee to schedule the legislation for a full vote in the State Senate.
According to a summary of the legislation, SB 227 would change Tennessee tort law to create a civil claim for individuals who are harmed by illegal immigrants who are knowingly housed by charitable organizations, specifically if an illegal immigrant housed by such an organization is convicted of crimes that led to financial loss, damages, physical injury, or death.
Submitted last month, Taylor’s bill seeks to modify the law to state that any charity providing “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.”
House Bill (HB) 811, the companion legislation by State Representative Rusty Grills (R-Newbern) under consideration in the State House, was introduced in February and assigned to the House Civil Justice Subcommittee, where it awaits further action.
Should the legislation pass a full vote in the Senate and House, it would go to Governor Bill Lee for a signature, immediately becoming law.
According to a recent report by the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference (TNDAGC), law enforcement throughout Tennessee reported nearly 3,000 arrests or convictions of illegal immigrants during the final three months of 2024. Davidson County saw the largest share of arrests or convictions in the state, reporting nearly 900.
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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].
I don’t know all the particulars here, but this seems like an overreach. When you charge Biden and the Democrats for their complicity in this matter first then go downstream.
Sounds great. Every state should be pushing for such a law!
An interesting approach to recouping taxpayer money given to “charities” who get government grants to these rogue outfits. I would think that the real way of dealing with them would be to not finance them to start with, But I guess that makes too much sense.
The “IF” clause makes this law useless.
The part that says, “if the charitable organization’s conduct in providing housing constitutes negligence, gross negligence, or willful and wanton misconduct.”… needs to be removed. This puts the burden of proving a vague and intangible set of criteria on the harmed people that are allowed to sue.
Complete waste of taxpayer funding to the legislature.