The Tennessee Senate approved legislation that could subject churches and charitable organizations to lawsuits if they provide housing aid to immigrants without legal status who go on to commit a crime.
The bill (SB227/HB11) by Sen. Brent Taylor of Memphis and Rep. Rusty Grills of Newbern has drawn pushback from some faith leaders who contend it is a violation of their religious freedom and their faith-based mission to care for the stranger, and all those in need.
The bill has yet to reach the House floor for a vote.
It doesn’t explicitly bar churches or nonprofit organizations from providing aid to legal or illegal immigrants, Taylor noted. But organizations that do so knowingly, he said, are undertaking a “misguided mission.”
Churches that help immigrants who are in the U.S. without permanent legal status have a “misguided mission,” said Sen. Brent Taylor, a Memphis Republican. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
“All it says is if you have assisted an illegal alien, and they commit a criminal act, then you can be held civilly liable,” Taylor said.
“It doesn’t stop from them from doing it, if that’s their misguided mission — that they want to try and bring in people who are in our country illegally and help them establish themselves in our community — then they need to better vet and supervise the illegal aliens that are in the community that they have helped bring there.”
Sen. Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat, noted the bill makes changes to a portion of Tennessee’s “Good Samaritan” statutes, which are designed to shield individuals and organizations that provide aid from lawsuits.
“What we are doing here is we are literally limiting the application of the Good Samaritan law,” Yarbro said.
“We’re drawing in churches like the Catholic Church, which is focused on a great deal of work in housing and working with distressed communities — and frankly churches all across the state and other and non religious charitable orgs as well — and exposing them to civil liability for crimes committed by someone they helped.”
Taylor’s own pastor, Matt Crawford of Trinity Baptist Church in Cordova, has pushed back against the notion churches should refrain from ministering to individuals without legal status, delivering a sermon in January that said “I don’t know the legal status of all our people who come to ESL. I don’t think we’re called on to police that as a church.”
The sermon, Fox13 Memphis reported, prompted Taylor to walk out.
Taylor told the Lookout last month that his message to churches was this:
“I would remind the churches that even heaven has an immigration policy,” he said. “You can’t climb over the wall in heaven. You can’t slick talk St. Peter into the gates of heaven. There’s a very specific way you come into heaven to become a resident of heaven. They’ve got a very strict immigration policy, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Americans to have an immigration policy that people follow.”
The proposed legislation applies to Tennessee charities and churches that knowingly provide long term housing aid to individuals without legal status, including the act of providing assistance in obtaining or signing a lease.
The bill specifically excludes “temporary overnight housing,” such as services provided by homeless shelters, from liability. The bill’s language makes no specific exception for domestic violence shelters.
Under Tennessee’s personal injury laws, most crime victims and their survivors may sue for up to $1 million in non-economic damages and $500,000 in punitive damages against those they are seeking to hold liable. There is no cap on economic damages, including lost wages and hospital bills.
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].
