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Immigration reporting bill draws sharp warnings that schools would be asked to act as 'local immigration judges'
Summary
Leader Lambert's amended HB7-93 would require schools to report aggregate counts of students meeting specified immigration criteria; immigration attorneys, parents and local school officials testified that the plan would impose burdens, risk poor data and could cost districts millions.
Leader Lambert described an amendment to House Bill 7-93 that narrows the measure to a data reporting requirement asking schools to report counts — not names or addresses — of students meeting specified immigration-related criteria to the Department of Education. Lambert said the change removes earlier provisions that raised concerns about federal funding exposure.
Opponents argued the bill still creates untenable duties for school staff. Immigration attorney Johnny Epstein told the committee: "This bill would force thousands of school staff across Tennessee to act as local immigration judges." He said federal immigration statuses are complex and fluid, and that checklist-style verifications will generate unreliable data. Stephen Puckett and Johanna Cohen warned of fiscal and moral consequences.
Catherine Bike, a Knox County Board of Education member, cited a report estimating statewide verification implementation at about $55,000,000 and said Knox County's share could be roughly $3,300,000, asking, "Where are we gonna come up with this money?" Leader Lambert and others reiterated that the amendment is a macro data collection effort and that the report would exclude personally identifiable information. The committee called the question and moved HB7-93 to full finance for further consideration.
