RUTLEDGE, Tennessee — In her remarks as a gubernatorial candidate at the Grainger County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday night, Sen. Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet) relayed her strong voting record against special privileges for illegal aliens, and reported that, “Illegals are costing us somewhere between $400 to $600 million a year for education, for food stamps, for housing, for all those things that we have to pick up after Catholic Charities and other organizations bring them in here.”
Beavers shared that Donald Trump’s stance on illegal immigration was one of the main reasons she decided to support him for president. She went on to be an at-large delegate for Trump, garnering more votes than any other delegate, and was later elected by the Tennessee delegation as the state’s delegation chair, an honor usually reserved for the governor of the state.
In light of the recent controversy over two Metro Nashville/Davidson County ordinances that would make Nashville the most liberal sanctuary city in the United States Beavers noted that she voted for the 2009 bill that made sanctuary cities illegal in Tennessee.
“That’s been in the news the past few days with Nashville and Nashville’s Mayor pushing sanctuary cities,” Beavers said.
” Can you imagine?” she asked the crowd.
Beavers said she voted against driver’s license and in-state tuition for illegals and asked, “What don’t we understand about these people are illegal and they should not be in our country?”
Putting the illegal immigration problem in perspective, Beavers said, “I’ve talked to a lot of people lately that came here legally. They had to work. They had to work on their citizenship, and I think everyone should have to work on their citizenship and come here legally.”
