Immigration backers rally near State House

Goal is to stem what some are calling an Annapolis backlash

Other legislation proposed this year would cut off state funding to municipalities that do not enforce immigration laws and ensure that undocumented immigrants cannot receive in-state tuition. Another bill would create a commission to study the costs and benefits of the illegal immigrant population on the state.

Many Democrats have coalesced around a bill to create a study commission, and the legislature appears poised to repeat a heated debate from last year, when an attempt to allow illegal immigrants to qualify for in-state tuition rates at Maryland's public colleges and universities narrowly failed.

This year, advocates from CASA of Maryland, the state's largest Latino and immigrant advocacy organization, have said that they have the votes to ensure approval of the tuition bill, and they predicted that it would survive a promised Republican filibuster.

In her keynote speech at the rally, Janet Murguia, executive director of National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights group, noted numerous instances of alleged hate crimes against Hispanics.

"We have a legitimate right to raise our voices, to ask that hate be removed from this debate," she said. "Let's face it, we have seen hate speech enter this discourse. And hate speech has consequences. To the Latino community, those consequences are personal."

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