Red State Seizes ‘Once-in-a-Generation’ Chance To Crack Down On Illegal Immigration

NASHVILLE—It was a humid night in June 2024 when Matt Carney encountered a pair of men rummaging through his truck.

Carney, who owned the popular chicken restaurant Smokin’ Thighs, went to confront the men. As he did, they sped out of the parking lot, striking Carney and knocking him onto the street. As police hunted for the men behind the fatal hit-and-run, Carney succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.

Eventually, Nashville police arrested Ulises Martinez, first confirmed by The Daily Wire to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico, and charged him with murder over the incident. Martinez admitted to police that he was driving the car that fatally struck Carney, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement slapped a detainer on him.

Smokin’ Thighs, which Carney built from the ground up, closed a few short months after his death. Martinez has yet to face justice as his case makes its way through the Davidson County court system.

The case quickly made headlines as then-candidate Donald Trump talked about the incident as he warned about a “migrant crime wave.”

“Look at what’s happening to our cities. Our cities are being overrun,” Trump said. “On July 4th, a 42-year-old Nashville man died after he tried to stop an illegal alien from stealing tools out of his truck. The illegal alien did a number on this man that nobody could even believe. The police officers said one of the most vicious crimes they’ve ever seen.”

Martinez/Smokin Thighs.

The case illustrated how illegal immigration can impact even deeply red states like Tennessee. While Joe Biden was in office, conservative states struggled to respond as the federal government released millions of illegal immigrants into the United States. With the Trump administration, some Republican lawmakers see a golden opportunity to crack down on illegal immigration.

‘Once In A Generation Opportunity’ 

Since Trump’s return to the White House, states like California and Minnesota have made headlines for resisting the president’s immigration agenda. Republican leaders in Tennessee, spurred on by cases like Carney’s, want the Volunteer State to be different.

“We have what I refer to as kind of a once in a generation opportunity, given the Trump administration’s emphasis on removing illegal immigrants and mass deportation,” Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson told The Daily Wire.

“When we look at states like Michigan, New York, and California, others that are literally fighting the Trump administration on those efforts, we wanted to send a very clear message that we were not only going to cooperate, but do everything we could to help make them successful in their efforts in Tennessee,” he added.

Johnson, alongside other state Republican leaders like House Speaker Cameron Sexton and House Majority Leader William Lamberth, introduced an immigration package at the beginning of the 2026 legislative session focused on reducing illegal immigration.

The legislative package, crafted with input from White House officials, includes bills that would make illegal immigration a crime in Tennessee; mandate legal status for public employees and citizenship verification for those who receive public benefits; protect ICE agents from being doxed; and increase cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials.

Sexton says he had discussions with the White House after they began collaborating on a project to clean up crime in Memphis. He praised federal officials for their input on the legislative package and said they viewed Tennessee “as being the beacon of showing other states how to do something comprehensive and really transform your state.”

The White House said that it was happy to speak with all state lawmakers about how to fight illegal immigration.

“Illegal aliens should not be receiving federal welfare benefits while hardworking Americans foot the bill,” a White House official told The Daily Wire. “The President’s entire Intergovernmental Affairs team has been willing to speak with state legislators seeking advice on how to effectively enact the President’s agenda and protect the American people from fraud and abuse perpetrated by illegal aliens.”

A ‘Beacon’ To The Nation 

Republican leaders are confident that most of the bills will make it across the finish line before the legislative session wraps up next month. The proposals are focused on increasing cooperation with the federal government and safeguarding taxpayer dollars.

One of the proposals making its way through the legislature would mandate that local governments verify legal residency before doling out benefits. It would also mandate reporting to ICE applicants whose citizenship couldn’t be verified. Under that bill, the Tennessee attorney general would be empowered to withhold shared tax revenue from entities that refuse to restrict public benefits.

“I want to help our people who are Tennessee citizens, who are here legally and lawfully, that need help and assistance,” Sexton told The Daily Wire, noting that reports show 20% of public housing is taken up by illegal immigrants. “That’s taken up space from someone who is here legally and lawfully in a Tennessee resident who’s homeless and on the streets, that’s a problem.”

Another key plank of the package is making E-Verify — a free platform from the Department of Homeland Security that employers use to authenticate the legal status of potential employees — mandatory for all state and local government employers, including schools. The proposals come as reports of illegal immigrants being hired as police officers throughout the country. Local entities that don’t implement E-Verify could lose out on shared sales tax revenue.

Some of the proposals are intended to assess the monetary cost of illegal immigration in the state, Sexton told The Daily Wire. He noted that the monetary costs of illegal immigration for the Volunteer State could be as high as $700 million.

One proposal from Lamberth would instruct schools to count how many illegal immigrants are in Tennessee schools. That would allow officials to determine how much taxpayers were paying to educate kids brought across the border illegally. Originally, the proposal would have required parents to pay tuition if they were illegally in the United States or disenroll their kids.

Other bills would increase the frequency of reporting for state agencies to increase tracking of illegal immigrants by both law enforcement and for the state finance report to produce a report on the cost of illegal immigration, drawing from places like schools, prisons, hospitals, and social services.

Another series of bills would require lawful status for nurses, teachers, contractors, and all licensed professions. One from Johnson and Rep. Jason Zachary would make it a crime for a person illegally in the country to operate a commercial motor vehicle. Other components would make it a requirement to take the driver’s test in English and make it impossible for an illegal immigrant to register a vehicle with the state.

Sexton noted Republicans were also working on legislation to make sure reciprocal licenses are not issued to those from states where citizenship is not verified.

“If you come from a state that does not verify your legal status, then before you get the reciprocal license, you’re gonna have to show the state of Tennessee that you’re here legally and lawfully and if you can’t, then we’re not giving your license,” he said.

One bill sponsored by Johnson and Lamberth would make it a crime for someone with a final order of deportation to be in the state of Tennessee.

“If that deportation order has been issued for whatever reason and you’re out and about, but you set foot in Tennessee, we can arrest you and charge you,” Johnson told The Daily Wire, noting that the proposal was crafted to be in line with the Supreme Court on federal immigration enforcement.

Another proposal would further require local law enforcement to hold illegal immigrants arrested for ICE.

Cost To Tennesseans 

Thanks to reporting requirements implemented by the legislature last year, district attorneys across the state must produce a report every year on the number of crimes illegal immigrants are arrested and charged with.

The report for 2025 found that there were 11,344 illegal immigrants charged or convicted of a crime during the year. The defendants came from 119 different countries and were charged with a total of 21,648 charges. The report identified  2,183 violent offenses, including 41 murders.

Those crimes are in the minds of lawmakers as they advance their immigration package.

Johnson believes that the immigration package from the General Assembly will “demonstrate to our constituents and to the Trump administration that we welcome your efforts to come in and get violent, illegal aliens out of our communities.”

He noted that presidents have vowed for years to secure the border, but he said Trump was the first one serious about doing it. He said Trump is “serious about it” and “we want to be a good partner with [him] and his administration.”

Sexton said that even one crime by an illegal against a Tennessean is unacceptable.

“You still had thousands of victims in Tennessee who became victims because of an illegal, who came into our country illegally, and they’re still here,” he said. “One victim by one illegal immigrant is one too many still, so I don’t care if it’s a 3% number, a 1% number, or a 10% number. Just one crime committed by an illegal against someone in Tennessee should not happen.”