Immigration Laws

The State Board of Elections notified petitioners Friday that they have succeeded in their effort to have Maryland voters weigh in on a new law enabling illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. But advocates of the tuition bill have until Aug. 1 to file a lawsuit challenging the referendum. Elections officials have been counting and validated signatures over the past few weeks. In all, the board accepted 108,923 signatures, nearly double the approximately 55,000 needed to secure the referendum a spot on the November 2012 ballot.

When I joined the Howard County police department in 1974, I was the first woman hired to perform routine patrol duties that previously had been performed only by men. I was assigned to work with Sgt. Ed Wessel, who had been around a while and was, let's just say, a traditionalist. It was clear that he and others in the nearly 100-man force were at best uncertain how women would integrate and perform in law enforcement. But Ed Wessel was a professional who worked diligently to give me the same support, encouragement, guidance and respect he had given to every other rookie officer during that era of transition.

CASA de Maryland, the immigrant rights group, recently requested from the Board of Elections a copy of the petition sheets from the current effort to place on the 2012 ballot a voter referendum on the state's recently enacted law granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. Such sheets are public records, and the board gave the organization a computer disk with scans of the sheets, as it did for other groups with an interest in the matter — and as it has done for petition drives in the past, including last year's effort in Anne Arundel County to overturn the zoning for a casino at Arundel Mills Mall.

While ostensibly designed to help curb illegal immigration, the impact of Alabama's HB 56 ("Alabama sets new standard," June 10) will instead be to punish and further intimidate illegals who already reside in that state. Much like Jim Crow, the spirit and provisions of this legislation give Alabama legal sanction to restrict minority access to education, employment, public services and the right to due process. It likewise criminalizes the efforts of good citizens to provide assistance to illegal immigrants, while giving police nearly unfettered power to act upon their own personal prejudices.

In his letter to the editor about the recently passed bill to allow illegal aliens to pay in-state tuition at Maryland colleges and universities stated, Roger Caplan said he found the term "alien" offensive. The definition of "alien" in my dictionary is simply: "one who is not a naturalized citizen of the country where they are living. " Maybe he does not understand the meaning of the word "illegal. " He then goes on to explain the bill and that it "Sounds like a reasonable plan ... ", thus ignoring several facts: 1. These illegal aliens will only pay in-state tuition, but be counted as part of the 30 percent of seats reserved for out-of-state students.

"A nation without borders is not a nation. " — Ronald Reagan Legal immigration plays a key role in building our nation and deserves our full support. But today we are facing rampant illegal border crossings that have a high cost to our state and nation. According to a report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, in Maryland alone we are paying $1.4 billion per year for costs associated with illegal aliens, such as K-12 education, health care costs and incarceration.

I read with dismay your front page stories "O'Malley signs tuition break" and "Seniors stunned by Md. scholarship cuts" (May 11). Of the scholarship cuts, Gov. Martin O'Malley's spokesperson was quoted as stating that "when we're dealing with the kind of recession we've been dealing with, every program can't be protected. " Yet the governor decided to support a tuition break for illegal immigrants? What kind of message does that send to the 350 law-abiding high school seniors who earned the merit scholarships?

When five law enforcement officers turned up on Walter Abbott's doorstep in Parkville barely two hours after he sent what prosecutors said was a threatening email to Gov. Martin O'Malley, his face turned ashen. It was as though he had seen a ghost, Sgt. Adam Stachurski, a member of the state police's Criminal Intelligence Section, told a jury in Baltimore County Circuit Court. "His hands went to his face, kind of in dismay. " Walter Abbott, a 47-year-old construction worker, stood trial Tuesday for the second time on charges of making a threat of bodily injury to a public official, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

I was amazed at The Sun's editorial on the DREAM Act ( "Killing the dream," Jan. 3), since the paper has made fledgling efforts to actually present a balanced news report of late. Obviously, the editor has not gotten the message that The Sun should reflect its constituency. I have not seen such drivel in a long time. The Sun editorial just reiterated all the straw man arguments that it could. It is difficult to know where to start. Seventy percent of Marylanders are opposed to amnesty.

It is good news Maryland's population has grown by 480,000 ( "Maryland population grows by 480,000," Dec. 22). That's a sizeable jump and will mean more taxes for the state, more consumers to purchase goods and services and increased funding to our pension programs. However, there was no mention as to the legal status of the expanding Hispanic population. The Latinos make up about 7 percent of Maryland's population and now account for 40 percent of the state's growth since the last census was taken.