Immigrants

While Republicans beat the drums of demagoguery with an attack on birthright citizenship designed to stoke anti-immigrant fervor in an election year, I'd like to suggest they shift focus back to another part of the Constitution that really needs to go: the requirement that the president be born in the United States. You can Google it, my fellow Americans: Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 says you can't run for the White House unless you were born here. Seven years ago, Orrin Hatch, the sartorially splendid Republican senator of Utah, proposed an amendment to allow foreign-born Americans who have been citizens for at least two decades to run for president.

On Election Day, voters will have the opportunity to continue the state's long tradition of welcoming new Americans and valuing education by supporting the Maryland Dream Act at the polls. A "For" vote on Question 4 will affirm the law signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley that provides in-state tuition to students who were brought to the U.S. at a young age, have been here for at least three years, graduate from high school in Maryland, and whose parents pay their taxes. The students must attend a community college for two years before entering one of the state's public four-year colleges or universities.

Los Angeles. -- Nativism, a noun denoting some nasty history, is now an epithet distorting debate about this nation's policy regarding immigration.Nativism, meaning irrational and mean-spirited partiality toward native-born people and hostility toward immigrants, is as old as the Republic. Before the end of the 18th century German immigrants were stigmatized as an unassimilable ethnic group because of their language and Catholicism. Religious and racial prejudice greeted, among others, Irish immigrants on the East Coast and Chinese on the West Coast.

Brussels THE MAIN problem is Islam." With those simple but provocative words, Belgium's pre-eminent political commentator, Dirk Achten, demolished all the pat answers and prejudices in the big immigration conflict now tearing at this country."Our immigrant problem here is at heart a problem of the Islamic immigrants not accepting the division between state and church -- and then getting involved in politics," said this moderate young journalist with the prestigious newspaper DE Standaard.

"MARYLAND The Ideal Home for the Immigrant," read a promotional booklet the state published in 1915 to entice people to settle in Maryland. Recently released 2000 census data show that, 85 years later, immigrants do believe Maryland is an ideal home. One in 12 of the state's residents is foreign-born, a whopping 45 percent increase since 1990. The lion's share of this influx has gone to Montgomery, Prince George's and Howard counties. The Asian population jumped 136 percent in Howard alone.

NEW YORK - It is a profound irony that this fabulous world city, victim of the horrific Sept. 11 attack perpetrated by foreign-born zealots, was also epicenter in the 1990s of an immigrant-led revival. That revival has driven the city's population to a historic high of 8 million, breathed fresh life and energy into ravaged urban neighborhoods across the five boroughs and propelled a reinvigorated regional economy forward. Immigration is under a cloud now as political leaders vow to monitor international students and hunt down foreigners in the United States illegally.

The private developers of two high-profile state projects are seeking financing through a visa program that lets wealthy foreigners go to the front of the line for green cards and possible U.S. citizenship in return for a $500,000 investment. Developers of the Seagirt Marine Terminal expansion and the proposed $1.5 billion office-retail-residential complex at State Center — projects in which state government agencies are key partners — are attempting to use the program to raise money in such countries as South Korea and China, where immigrants face long waits to enter the United States through conventional channels.

Hidden in the welfare reform bill passed by the House of Representatives are provisions having nothing to do with welfare or illegal immigration.Their effect would be to penalize past legal immigration retroactively, and pressure legal immigrants to become U.S. citizens or get out.No particular rationale is championed. The debate over the bill ignored the immigrant dimension.The bill passed on a party-line vote with little debate or floor action, as part of the House Republicans' ''Contract with America.

Passing summary judgment on a diverse group of people inevitably results in inaccuracies and unfairness. And that is what happened when Cal Thomas blamed immigrants for making the U.S. a divided union ("Immigrants making U.S. divided union," Opinion*Commentary, Aug. 21). I am an immigrant myself and I am deeply hurt by Mr. Thomas' statements. Contrary to his view of immigrants, I try to speak and write in correct English and I take every opportunity to improve my language skills. I care about American history; in fact, most immigrants do. The next time you visit a historic site -- Fort McHenry, Gettysburg, Plymouth Plantation -- look around: You will notice a disproportionate number of foreign-born visitors.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service raided two Annapolis apartment complexes before dawn yesterday, arresting 23 inhabitants and deporting them to Latin America as early as last night.The operation, called "Bag and Baggage," targeted immigrants who had applied for legal residency but were turned down by the INS and didn't obey federal deportation orders, said John F. O'Malley, assistant district director of detention and deportation at the INS in Baltimore."They basically have no equity left," Mr. O'Malley said.