The American Civil Liberties Union joined the National Immigration Law Center last week in filing a class action lawsuit challenging a state law that makes it a Class A misdemeanor for immigrants without legal status to remain in the state. The organizations filed the suit on behalf of two individuals who have lived in Tennessee for decades but were denied asylum claims.
The lawsuit focuses on section one of the law. Once in effect, this section will require individuals who have received a valid final order of removal from a federal immigration judge to vacate the state within 90 days of the order. Those who “intentionally fail” or refuse to depart, could face up to a $2,500 fine and jail time.
According to the ACLU, the legal basis for the suit rests on the accusation that the law is a direct violation of the Supremacy Clause in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which establishes the principle that state law cannot conflict with federal law.
“We filed this case because immigration is really the province of the federal government,” said Hannah Steinberg, the lead attorney for the ACLU.
Steinberg also cited Arizona v. United States, a case in which the Supreme Court upheld that the federal government has authority over immigration enforcement, not individual states.
“It raises all sorts of foreign policy concerns, national interests, and it requires the federal government to make these very sensitive determinations of whether non-citizens should remain in the country or not, and that's something that the state just cannot make a decision on,” Steinberg explained.
While there has been no comment from the state Attorney General, Jonathan Skremetti, WUOT received a statement from Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lamberth, the law’s primary sponsor.
“The ACLU conveniently ignores that this law applies to illegal immigrants who have already received due process, pursued all available legal options and been ordered removed from the United States,” he said, “Come here legally or not at all."
While not currently part of the lawsuit, the other sections of the law seem to follow a similar pattern.
The second section reclassifies the offense of a noncitizen entering or attempting to enter the state with an outstanding exclusion, deportation, or removal order as a Class A Misdemeanor.
The third section would allow the state to determine an individual's immigration status. However, section three will only go into effect if the Supreme Court overrules Arizona v. United States.