Tennessee House advances bill requiring local officers to aid US immigration authorities

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Republican-led Tennessee House advanced a proposal Thursday that would require law enforcement agencies in the state to communicate with federal immigration authorities if they discover people are in the the country illegally, and would broadly mandate cooperation in the process of identifying, catching, detaining and deporting them.

The House vote coincides with efforts in other Republican-led states to inject more state and local involvement in immigration enforcement, while criticizing President Joe Biden’s border policies. That includes a Texas law allowing authorities in that state to arrest migrants who enter the U.S. illegally and order them to leave the country, which remains blocked temporarily in court.

“President Biden’s administration has delivered this pain to our doorsteps,” Tennessee Republican Rep. Chris Todd of Madison County said during Thursday’s debate.

Action on the Tennessee bill now moves to the GOP-led Senate floor. It says law enforcement agencies and officials “shall” cooperate in various immigration tasks already spelled out in state law, instead of saying they “are authorized” to do so, which was put into Tennessee code in a toughening of state immigration law that passed in 2018.

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