Tennessee is rejecting applications for driver’s licenses from immigrants who are authorized by the federal government to work and live in the United States, a shift in policy that could strip thousands of longtime license-holders of the ability to legally drive, immigrant attorneys and advocates said.
The surprise change in Tennessee driver’s license rules, which lawyers and advocates said they first learned about through anxious client calls in recent weeks, could place immigrants permitted to work in the United States at risk for arrest, detention and subsequent deportation if caught driving to work, school or the grocery store without a license.
Among those expected to be impacted are an estimated 6,000 “Dreamers” living in Tennessee. They are part of a federal immigration category known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals for those brought here without legal status as children who are now protected from deportation. It is one of multiple categories of immigrants who are granted work permits by the government to live and work in the United States.
Work permits do not denote permanent immigration status as a green card does, but they serve in many instances as the only official form of proof individuals receive from the government to show they are authorized to be in the country.
The credit-card sized permits contain detailed personal information, such as birth date, address and country of birth, a code signifying the individual’s specific authorized U.S. immigration status, immigration ID number and an expiration date.
Until now, the work permits have been accepted as sufficient proof that an individual is authorized to be in the country to obtain a Tennessee license.
Quotation
“There were just a lot of feelings around not belonging in Tennessee, in a state that has been home for decades. Now the state is telling ‘you’re not welcome here, even though you have status. You don’t belong.’
– Jazmin Ramirez, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition
State cites 2025 law change
A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security confirmed last week the work permits are no longer accepted as proof of a valid immigration status for the purposes of obtaining a driver’s license.
The spokesperson cited a portion of a 2025 state law that took effect Jan. 1 of this year, but does not appear to have been interpreted by state officials to deny licenses to DACA recipients and other immigrant work permit holders until recently.
The law was sweeping in scope, with multiple provisions that included the creation of a new state immigration enforcement division and mandating local law enforcement collaboration with federal immigration agents. It was enacted as part of a slate of Tennessee Republican anti-immigration bills in 2025.
Jason Pack, the spokesperson for the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, cited a provision of the state legislation that also requires applicants for temporary Tennessee driver’s licenses to provide documentation that establishes they have been “authorized by the federal government for a specific purpose and for a specified period of authorized stay.”
Employment authorization documents do not provide “sufficient information to verify an applicant’s lawful status and specified period of authorized stay,” he wrote via email.
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Hundreds of people have recently been denied a license renewal under the 2025 law cited by the spokesperson, according to advocates. Among them is a woman who has possessed a Tennessee license for 15 years.
Zavala is a Dreamer. She asked to be referred to only by her last name out of fear of retaliation from government authorities for speaking publicly.
The DACA program protects people from deportation who were brought to the country as children, and authorizes them to live and work in the United States. It is a temporary status that is periodically renewed by the federal government. DACA recipients have no direct route to becoming lawful permanent residents or citizens.
Zavala arrived in Tennessee from Mexico at age four and has held a valid Tennessee driver’s license since she was 18, she said. She is now 33.
Earlier this month, Zavala said she was blocked in two separate driver’s license stations from renewing her temporary license — a two-year, renewable license that has long been made available to immigrants in Tennessee with a federally-issued work permit.
Even as she presented the same paperwork she had each time she had previously renewed her license — the work permit, Social Security card and proof of home address — a state worker told her the papers were no longer acceptable proof she was legally authorized to be in the country, suggesting she provide other immigration paperwork instead.
None of the other acceptable immigration documents listed for a Tennessee license are issued to DACA recipients.
‘I’m legally allowed to be in the States’
Without a license, Zavala cannot drive to her full-time job or take her daughter, who suffers from a chronic illness, to frequent medical and therapy appointments, Zavala said.
“I have been on DACA since 2012,” she said. “I’ve never had an issue. My work permit is valid. I’m legally allowed to be in the States.”
“What concerns me the most is my little girl. I need to provide for her. How am I going to get her to the appointments she needs?”
Zavala has a partner she described as a devoted father, who also provides for their daughter and takes her to school and doctor’s appointments. “He has DACA, too,” she said.
Pack, the spokesperson for the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, did not specify when the department began interpreting the 2025 law to exclude immigrant work permits from a list of acceptable documents. The language of the law does not specify the types of documents necessary for authorized immigrants to obtain a license nor say that work permits are to be excluded.
Peter McGraw, legal deputy director for the National Immigration Law Center, which tracks state legislation, disputed the state’s interpretation of the 2025 law’s language.
“Every state’s law is different,” he said. “Tennessee’s law makes clear that the federal government, not the state, determines whether an individual is authorized to be present in the United States. DACA recipients are authorized by the federal government to be present and work in the United States. I’m not aware of any other state denying driver’s licenses to DACA recipients contrary to its own laws.”
‘Acceptable documents’ exclude broad categories of immigrants
The employment card was listed as an acceptable document as late as August, according to an online website archive. By September, it had been erased from the state website.
Memphis immigration attorney Ari Sauer said he began getting calls two months ago from clients unable to complete routine temporary driver’s license renewals.
None of the immigration documents now accepted for temporary Tennessee licenses are issued or available to DACA recipients, Sauer noted. The same is true for multiple other categories of immigrants whom the federal government has authorized to live and work legally in the country, he said.
“It’s a much bigger group than DACA,” who will not be able to get Tennessee licenses, said Sauer, a partner with the Siskind Susser law firm.
The Tennessee Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights has asked the state to explain the rule changes, according to Jazmin Ramirez, director of advocacy.
Ramirez said her organization has been receiving an uptick in calls from individuals across Tennessee who were unable to renew their licenses, especially DACA recipients, at the beginning of October. Other callers came from a “mix of categories” under immigration law, including certain people in the asylum process, she said.
At a recent community meeting the organization held to hear from individuals denied licenses, Ramirez described a heavy atmosphere.
“There were just a lot of feelings around not belonging in Tennessee, in a state that has been home for decades,” Ramirez said. “Now the state is telling ‘you’re not welcome here, even though you have status. You don’t belong.’”
“This means in the practical sense people cannot get to work jobs they have been doing for many years. Parents aren’t able to drop off their kids or pick up their kids safely.”
Ramirez also highlighted the risks for individuals who drive anyway, including getting pulled over, cited and taken into custody. “In the worst case scenario that means people could end up in the deportation pipeline,” she said.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: [email protected].
