UPDATED (6:45 p.m.)—At least five of the seven members of the Baltimore County Council will sign onto a letter encouraging county residents to support an effort to overturn a new state law that grants in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.
Councilman Todd Huff said Wednesday evening that Democratic Councilwoman Vicki Almond and Cathy Bevins will join with him, Council Chairman John A. Olszewski Sr. and David Marks in signing a letter of support as early as this week.
"This is a means of showing support as individuals," said Olszewski, a Dundalk Democrat. All three said the letter of support will serve in place of a resolution. The council historically has avoided approving resolutions taking stands on state and federal issues.
(Listen to Olszewski in a Wednesday afternoon interview with WBAL radio.)
By signing the letter, the council members are backing a statewide movement to overturn the Maryland Dream Act by placing the in-state tuition law on the 2012 ballot as a referendum that voters will vote up or down.
The Maryland Dream Act's supporters said the action by council members was not surprising, but was disappointing.
Elizabeth Alex, an organizer for Casa De Maryland in central Maryland, said she hopes "county residents will see beyond the tactics of fear and division."
Four other Democratic council members—Almond, Bevins, Ken Oliver and Tom Quirk—have not returned calls from a reporter seeking comment.
Proponents of the referendum drive received good news Tuesday when Maryland State Board of Elections officials certified that the group had turned in at least 18,500 valid signatures.
Results released late Wednesday afternoon show the group has 37,112 valid signatures with about 18,000 left to be verified. The issue will be placed on the 2012 ballot if they collect 55,736 signatures of registered voters by June 30.
Huff, a Timonium Republican, said the council members are asking county voters to support the referendum because the law could have an economic impact on the county.
The bill passed earlier this year by the General Assembly would grant in-state tuition, under certain circumstances, to illegal immigrants attending community colleges and the University of Maryland.
Sandra Kurtinitis, president of the Community College of Baltimore County, told the council in April that the law would have a minimal effect in the county.
Of the more than 74,000 students attending the college, by the change in the law, Kurtinitis said at the time.
It is not clear how the bill would affect the county's budget.
An analysis by the Department of Legislative Services estimates that the bill will cost the state an additional $778,400 in two years and more than $3.5 million in four years.
"Who knows what will happen in the future?" Marks said.
The council members' call to support the referendum drive comes at the same time that Maryland State Board of Elections statistics show county residents are signing the petition at rates higher than other surrounding counties. So far, more than 14,000 county residents signed the petition—about 23 percent of all signatures turned in at the May 31 deadline.
Of those signatures from the county, more than 12,000—about 84 percent—were judged valid by the county board of elections. That's nearly 40 percent of the more than 30,000 signatures ruled valid on Tuesday.
Marks, a Perry Hall Republican, has signed the petition. In fact, Marks said he used his campaign account to pay for half of a booth he shared with volunteers collecting signatures at the Towson Spring Festival.
Huff said he plans to sign the petition soon.
Olszewski has not yet signed the petition but added that he intends to do so.
"I do support the effort," said Olszewski. "I've just been too busy to sign it."
The letter of support from the Baltimore County Council members follows similar letters issued by Carroll and Frederick counties, which made similar statements of support at the end of May.
Alex said support from Olszewski and two Republicans was not surprising.
"What is somewhat disappointing and somewhat surprising is that the council would issue this letter given that the Census shows a growing Latino population in Baltimore County," Alex said.
The Hispanic population in the county more than doubled between 2000 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census Buerau.
In 2000, there were more than 13,700 Hispanics in the Baltimore County—about 1.8 percent of the population. That number grew to more than 33,800 or 4.2 percent of the county's population of 805,000 in 2010.
Alex said the number of signatures collected in the county and the expected letter from the council is representative of county's "long and difficult relationship with race issues."
"People are being polarized on this issue and succumbing to fear tactics and the misinformation that is out there," Alex said.
Del. Pat McDonough, a Middle River Republican and vocal opponent of the Dream Act, said opponents are "playing the race card because they can't win the argument on the merits."
"This is what I deal with all the time," McDonough said. "They're calling an entire county racists."
McDonough applauded the council members who are signing off on the letter.
"It's a good action on their part," McDonough said. "Baltimore County has the largest number of signatures of any other county."
Ann Miller, a Phoenix Republican who helped organize the petition drive in the county, said she would have liked the council to pass a resolution in support of the effort but said she's happy with the letter.
"Of course we would have liked a resolution but this is a good step in the right direction," Miller said.
For Miller, the resolution carried a symbolic importance, even if it didn't carry the force of law, because it would have required council members to vote for or against it.
"As far as the message to the people, there's really no difference," Miller said.
Historically, the council has not been willing to pass resolutions taking stands on state and federal issues.
Olszewski, who once unsuccessfully tried to have the council pass a resolution supporting a proposed federal law affecting unions, said as chairman he agrees that the council should continue to stay out of state and federal issues.
"This is a means of showing support as individuals," Olszewski said.
Just go away (from this topic) now. You don't flame out on all your arguments but you're about as far under the sea as Osama on this one. Quit while you're behind.
On the other hand, I frequent a restaurant convenient to my home where in the past the staff apparently was mainly illegals. I had no idea they were until this news hit the wires! http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1010/101028baltimore.htm Since the forced removal of the illegals from that restaurant who were waiting on people, busing the tables and generally taking care of paying patrons at By The Docks. The service at that fine eatery has plummeted since the replacement legal staff is now overweight, lazy white kids who feel they are above doing the kind of work they expect to be paid for. Undoubtedly a result of no air conditioning at school, like I'm sure those illegals had at their home land.
Slaves are the same as illegals............. Slaves were TAKEN from their homeland and sold here to perform work........... Illegals are RUNNING from their homeland seeking work....... Oh, I get it ??????????????
He said that last year about 60,000 Arizona residents filed taxes using a tax ID number, resulting in about $6 million in refunds. The state sampled a "pretty good portion" of those returns, he said, and found that in 80 to 85 percent of them, the ID number did not match information provided on an associated W-2. This year, he said, the new program will allow them to go through all the returns. Forschino said the crackdown is not designed to target illegal immigrants. "We have a responsibility to try and stop fraudulent returns," he said. "There are people that, and we have found this in the past, who tried to create a W-2 that doesn't even exist or stole somebody's W-2 and tried to get a refund." http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2011/04/09/20110409arizona-tax-fraud-crackdown.html
. . . "The concerns about Maryland’s Dream Act are understandable; they’re also misplaced. They fail to recognize that the law is overwhelmingly in the state’s interest. Implement it, and thousands of ambitious, promising youngsters who have grown up in Maryland will have a chance to realize their potential as productive, taxpaying members of society. Repeal it, and those same youngsters will swell the ranks of the underclass, paying less in taxes, consuming more in services and living lives soured by the frustration of unrealized potential. "The demographic targeted by the Dream Act consists largely of teenagers who were brought by their parents to the United States, often as young children. Many have relatives who are citizens. They have grown up speaking English and are loyal to their adoptive country, attending and graduating from high school and regarding themselves as American in most or every way." . . .
I am a Latino immigrant to the U.S. My father brought us here with a sixth grade education. I am my family's first college graduate, and both of my daughters have master's degrees. I am appalled at the move to abolish theMaryland Dream Act. Despite being restrictive, it gives deserving innocent children of undocumented workers a chance to get a college education. Why are they being punished? This immigrant issue has reached new lows as the move by some of our legislators is nothing but racism. That is not the way to resolve this thorny issue. I have experienced a change in attitude toward me — even from people I have known for a long time — when I stand up for Latino human rights. Because I am white, I often hear racists remarks about Latinos. I am hopeful that the people of Maryland will vote their conscience in November, 2012, if it gets that far. Alex Molina
Racism cannot exist without fear. Thank God the Tea Party (the party of scared old white people) has imploded in the past week. Maybe the rest of the state will come to their senses and the bigots can go back under their rocks.
Another example was the horrible treatment of Jewish refugees from Europe, fleeing Hitler. Our State Dept. would not save lives by extending visas, nor were asylum seekers welcome - since US law, still in thrall to Jim Crow, did not recognize this category of immigrant. Efforts to deny educational benefits to immigrant kids is a throwback to the bad old days. We dare not take this backward step.
http://www.cjd.org/paper/truth.html
Why is it that supporters of SB167 only think of immigrants as being hispanic? They are of all countries of origin. Or is it that you are only supporting those immigrants who CASA de Maryland (Central American Solidarity Association) supports? Pure catering to a tax-funded special interest group with deep pockets and close ties with the Democrat monopoly ruling (not representing) this state. Shameful pandering Robert.
NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER "The church is the strongest link in the tenuous safety net stretching from Central America to the United States. Bishops on both sides of the U.S. border are organizing to address migration, viewing it as a shared problem driven by poverty in the migrants’ home countries and by a thirst for cheap labor in the United States. “The church in Latin America and the United States is playing a very important role in the migration issue,” said Jesuit Fr. Rafael Moreno, who heads the Jesuit Refugee and Migrant Service in Latin America. “The church in the United States is perhaps one of the U.S. institutions that is being most transformed now with migration,” he said. As the number of Hispanic Catholics grows, “the Catholic church will change significantly. U.S. Catholics must accept that the American Catholic church will become more Hispanic and embrace what that means.” The words of Matthew’s Gospel -- “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me” -- are a call to U.S. Catholics, Moreno said. “It means a ministry of welcoming and integration of migrants.”