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State OKs tuition break for illegal immigrants
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House Republican Leader Anthony O’Donnell, Calvert, said some students may leave the state after high school and return to apply for university as residents.
Annapolis (Map, News) - After intense debate Monday night, the Maryland House of Delegates agreed to let undocumented immigrants who have attended high school in Maryland pay in-state tuition at public colleges and university.
The measure (HB 6) passed 81-57, with 20 Democrats from more conservative districts joining all 37 Republicans to oppose the bill.
“We are aiding and abetting and violating federal law by people who are in this state illegally,” said Del. Patrick McDonough, R-Baltimore-Harford. “We are a sanctuary state,” he said, for illegal immigrants, with their numbers going up from 75,000 to 300,000 in just five years, according to one study.
“The vast majority did not decide to come here,” but were brought by their parents, said House Majority Leader Kumar Barve, D-Montgomery. These graduates are “just the kind of people we want here. These are decent, hardworking people.”
House Republican Leader Anthony O’Donnell, Calvert, complained that it would be possible for some of the students to leave the state after high school and then return to apply for university as residents. “Americans can’t do that,” O’Donnell said.
Opponents worried that illegal immigrants would be taking spots intended for legal residents. The immigrants must apply for permanent U.S. residency 30 days after they apply for university admission.
Del. Nancy King, D-Montgomery, whose Ways and Means subcommittee approved the bill, estimated that only 200 students per year will qualify and that they would cost far less than the $3 million McDonough estimated, since most could only afford to attend community colleges.
“I think we’re talking about a lot more money than that,” McDonough said.
The debate became emotional on both sides. Del. Melvin Stukes, D-Baltimore City, said the lawmakers voting against the tuition break had “the mind-set” of the framers of the U.S. Constitution who counted slaves as three-fifths of a person. Some of his colleagues were offended by the remark, and Stukes later apologized on the floor.
But another African-American, Del. Emmett Burns, D-Baltimore County, took a different view in opposing the bill.
“I’m not against civil rights,” Burns said. “But I have seen so many groups come to this country and get ahead of us economically, socially.
“There are only so many opportunities.”
llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
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frogseayouye said:
look water glass german are deliver
4 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Thier are two other companies in N.Y. harbor that offer school and a job.
324 agree | 326 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
These schools do not educate folks with degrees adequate for many BRAC jobs
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Examiner Reader said:
Please note that Judge Clifton Gordy is a Associte Judge in the Circuit Court for BALTIMORE CITY not Baltimore County.
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Q & A said:
Answer: Mudd, Mikulsi, and O'Malley. Question: Name three rteasons not to attend the U of Md.
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Julie Evans, University of Maryland, Baltimore said:
In your facts about UMB, you left out the majority of the students (4,837) on campus which are in graduate and professional degree programs: Physicians 621 Pharmacists 480 Dentists 456 Social Workers 840 Lawyers 830 Nurses 788 Physical therapists 194 Other graduate (PhDs) 628
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Examiner Reader said:
i think it is great hoping for nothing but success
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Ori Shabazz said:
If not solved in primary or secondary, Black males (Black people) must settle the identity question during post secondary work. Black male and female students in Baltimore must be INSPIRED to learn through innovative means. Black male students have to be taught the very basics of education and SOCIAL skills.
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Examiner Reader said:
I believe the problem with low attendence of black males in college is a cultural issue not a fairness issue.
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Examiner Reader said:
You mean all it takes to get black males to go to college is have black professors? Wow, I wish it was that easy. There is a nation-wide trend for more women than men in post-high school education; right now the gap is about 55% women and 45% men and getting wider. How does the issue of the race require different tactics than simply being a male?
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Examiner Reader said:
As a retired teacher, I am happy to see black young men with a continued positive influence post- high school. I do hope that the program developes with enormous success and extend itself to young black adolences prior to exiting High School. We need to give them a little motivation during the middle school experience. If that is not an option, well, I guess those wilth the inner drive will continue graduating for some institude beyond High School will do so! But, statistics are evidence, the we are losing them before High School! Grades 6th - 8th have been the points of deciding whether to lead or to follow. Our black youth need you, as a group positive black role models to implement some incentives to motivate their self-esteem and ethnocentric pride! May God bless you in this endeavor that may enlighten others to join your cause that can make difference in our city and others!
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