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Judge orders Tennessee to accept work permits again for immigrant driver's licenses
A Nashville chancellor has temporarily barred Tennessee from turning away work-permit holders, including DACA recipients and asylum seekers, who apply for or renew a driver's license. The state has not announced an appeal, and a hearing on extending the block is set for Nov. 16.
Immigrants who hold federal work permits can once again apply for and renew Tennessee driver's licenses, at least for now, after a Nashville judge put a temporary hold on a state policy that had been sending them away from Driver Services Centers since early October.
Davidson County Chancellor Russell Perkins signed a temporary restraining order on Nov. 2 that bars the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security from requiring noncitizens who seek temporary licenses to show only a foreign passport with a visa and an approved I-94 or I-94W arrival record. It also forbids the department from rejecting valid federal employment authorization documents, known as Form I-766, and other federal records checked through the SAVE verification system, Nashville's WZTV reported. Perkins found that the risk of irreparable harm, the plaintiffs' chances of success and the public interest favored a pause, the station said.
The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, the lead plaintiff, has since heard "some reports of individuals being able to get through the process to renew their license," advocacy manager Cali VanCleve told NewsChannel 5, though the group warned that centers may not all apply the order the same way. No state appeal had been reported by Saturday, and the department says "longstanding policy prohibits the department from publicly discussing pending litigation." Perkins set a Nov. 16 hearing on whether the block should stay in place while the case proceeds, according to WPLN News and the Tennessee Lookout.
Dreamers, asylum seekers and TPS holders
The policy hit people who are in the country with federal permission but whose main proof of that status is the work permit card, or EAD. Advocates told NewsChannel 5 that denials reached DACA recipients, refugees, people with Temporary Protected Status, asylees and U-visa holders, and WPLN also pointed to asylum seekers. Tennessee is home to an estimated 6,000 DACA recipients, according to the Tennessee Lookout. The coalition says the rule "excludes thousands of people living in Tennessee with federal authorization," and VanCleve told WKRN that "easily hundreds of people have been impacted" so far.
Because immigrants without permanent legal status qualify only for temporary licenses in Tennessee, a refused renewal can take a worker off the road. One plaintiff, identified only as L.R., is a DACA recipient and nurse in East Tennessee with an hour-long commute. "We are already experiencing a nursing shortage," he told WPLN. Another, a therapist for children with disabilities, lost her job after her renewal was rejected, the station reported.
A 2025 law, read a new way
The department has tied the change to a 2025 state immigration law, in force since Jan. 1, that requires temporary-license applicants to prove federal authorization "for a specific purpose and for a specified period of authorized stay." In a statement to NewsChannel 5 citing state code section 55-50-331(g), the department said DACA "is a form of deferred action" and that the employment card "by itself, does not establish the status required."
The plaintiffs counter that the statute names no specific documents and that Tennessee accepted the federal work card for nearly two decades. Their suit, filed Oct. 30 in Davidson County Chancery Court with help from the National Immigration Law Center and the law firm Bass, Berry & Sims, argues the department overstepped its authority and skipped the public notice and comment that state rulemaking requires. It also alleges the department stopped checking applicants through SAVE, the federal database states use to confirm immigration status.
"Tennessee's denial of driver's licenses to immigrants is unlawful and infringes on Tennesseans' right to have a say," Peter McGraw, legal deputy director at the National Immigration Law Center, said when the case was filed, according to WSMV.
Governor still looking for answers
The change raised questions inside state government as well. Gov. Bill Lee said late last month that he had "just become aware" of the new rules and wondered whether the interplay of state and federal laws had created "unintended consequences potentially." "That's kind of what we're trying to figure out right now," Lee said, according to the Tennessee Lookout.
Photos: Warren LeMay (CC BY-SA 2.0), Riis2602 (CC BY-SA 4.0) / Wikimedia Commons (archive)
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