Judge blocks Tennessee from denying driver’s licenses to immigrants with work permits

A Nashville judge temporarily blocked Tennessee officials from denying driver’s licenses and license renewals to immigrants authorized by the federal government to live and work in the United States. 

Chancellor Russell Perkins, in an order issued Monday, wrote several factors weighed in favor of the temporary restraining order, including the threat of irreparable harm and the public interest.

Perkins set an initial hearing in the case for Nov. 14. 

The Tennessee Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights and six immigrants with valid work permits filed suit on Friday, alleging the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security violated state law and exceeded its authority in implementing new rules that restrict which immigration documents are necessary to obtain a temporary driver’s license. 

Tennessee blocks driver’s licenses for Dreamers, other immigrants with U.S. work permits

The rules exclude a federally-issued employment authorization card as an acceptable document for the purposes of demonstrating an individual is authorized by the federal government to legally work and be present in the country. The employment card has been accepted by Tennessee driver’s license officials for nearly two decades as sufficient documentation to issue a license to immigrant residents of Tennessee.

For many immigrants, including asylum seekers and so-called Dreamers — individuals who were brought to the country as children and are now protected from deportation — the work authorization document serves as the only proof they have of their immigration status. 

Hundreds of Tennessee residents have been denied temporary licenses and license renewals since the department first began implementing the new rules in recent weeks. Immigrants without permanent legal status are only eligible for temporary licenses in Tennessee. 

In a statement issued late Monday, the Tennessee Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights said that, under the temporary order, state driver’s license clerks cannot require that people provide a “visa or I-94” in order to get a license, referring to immigration documents the state is now requiring. The documents are not issued to many classes of immigrants the federal government has authorized to live and work in the country. 

Lawsuit seeks to block TN from denying driver’s licenses to immigrants legally allowed to work 

“Instead, the Department has to comply with its regulations and practice of many years and accept work permits and other federal documents as proof of federally authorized presence when issuing temporary driver’s licenses,” the statement said.

A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which administers driver’s licenses, last week cited a Tennessee law that requires applicants for the temporary licenses to provide documentation that establishes a specific period of lawful status in the United States. The employment authorization card, the spokesperson said, does not. 

The law cited by the department was first enacted nearly 20 years ago then revised by lawmakers in 2025. Neither the original nor the revised law specifies which documents are acceptable or unacceptable forms of proof of immigration status. 

The legal challenge alleges state officials abruptly changed rules for driver’s licenses without following state law and without public notice. Thousands of immigrants statewide with federally-issued work permits are at risk for losing drivers’ licenses that enable them to legally drive to work and school.

The temporary restraining order