NASHVILLE - With a Tuesday deadline looming over what action he will take on a controversial "anti-sanctuary cities" bill, Gov. Bill Haslam says both supporters and critics of the measure are engaged in "stirring up fear."
"I just think on both sides of the issue there's been a lot of fear that's been dredged up that I'm just not certain is legitimate," Haslam complained last week to reporters.
The legislation, passed by resounding majorities in the Republican-dominated General Assembly last month, mandates local law enforcement detain immigrants for deportation at the request of federal officials without requiring warrants or probable cause.
Cities and counties violating provisions risk the loss of new state economic and community development grants.
Haslam argued that "for some people there are sanctuary cities in Tennessee. There are not. And by my reading I don't think they are legal to do it [adopt sanctuary policies] in Tennessee.
"For others," Haslam added, "it's a mass deportation bill. It is not that."
The bill landed on the governor's desk May 10, triggering a 10-day clock, excluding Sundays. That runs out Tuesday. Haslam can sign, veto or allow the measure to become law minus his signature.
If Haslam vetoes the bill, legislative proponents would undoubtedly mount on effort to call the General Assembly back into session and override the action.
The bill passed the House by a 63-23 margin and a 27-5 margin in the Senate. Veto overrides are fairly simple in Tennessee. It only takes the same majority needed to pass a bill in the first place - 50 votes in the House and 17 in the Senate.
Meanwhile, pro and con, the controversy is playing out here in Tennessee and elsewhere.
Immigrant advocates and their allies have called on Haslam to veto the measure and already have staged two mass protests in Nashville, home to the state's largest immigrant community.
Just last week, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition warned the term-limited governor, who leaves office in January, that "this kind of legislation would be a stain on the state and on his gubernatorial legacy, and would further antagonize Tennessee's immigrant community."
Also last week, a national coalition of 10 civil rights organizations fired off a letter to Haslam charging that House Bill 2315 seeks to turn "local law enforcement into a mass deportation force" and represents "one of the country's most extreme and anti-immigrant bills."
Among other things, the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Unidos US and other groups said the would-be law "would bar all law enforcement agencies, even campus police, from adopting commonsense policies that limit officer inquiry about immigration and citizenship status, including in routine interactions with victims and witnesses to crime."
Noting the bill was amended at various times in the legislative process, Haslam said "we are taking our time to see exactly how much discretion it does take away."
Proponents of the legislation are weighing in as well. "Sanctuary cities" and illegal immigration generally have become a feature in the Republican gubernatorial nomination battle.
U.S. Rep. Diane Black, a GOP candidate for governor, initiated a petition drive urging Haslam to sign the legislation. In an April television ad, Black pledged "there will be no sanctuary cities and no sanctuary policies on my watch."
Last week, Black went up with a new television ad titled "Catch and Release." Black's campaign says it "focuses on her tough stance on illegal immigration and her dedication to enforce the law as Tennessee's next governor."
Another GOP candidate, Knoxville businessman and Haslam's former economic and community development commissioner Randy Boyd, is airing his own ad.
"Illegal is illegal," Boyd says, with a narrator going on to say Boyd as governor "will crack down on illegal immigration. No sanctuary cities."
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com.