Undocumented

A Montgomery County judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a conservative foundation demanding that a Montgomery County community college end its practice of offering in-county tuition rates to illegal immigrants. A spokeswoman for Montgomery College, which has campuses in Rockville, Takoma Park and Germantown, told The Baltimore Sun last year that the school's policy is to offer the reduced tuition rate to anyone who can demonstrate that he or she lives in Montgomery County or graduated from a public high school there within the past three years.

Dan Rodricks ' recent column lacked a very important adjective in its headline. ("Immigrants: We detest them - and need them," June 30). It lacks the word "illegal. " But we know Mr. Rodricks agenda: He loves the word "undocumented" instead, as if that cleans it up. When an individual illegally crosses our borders, he or she is committing a felony. But we can't expect Mr. Rodricks to get that close to the truth. He says we need immigrants. Of course, we do. We always have.

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?

The new Maryland law allowing some undocumented aliens to pay in-state college tuition rates may reduce rather than increase, the number of undocumented aliens in Maryland colleges ("A chance for success," April 11). In order to gain support for the bill, a provision was added that for purposes of admission, undocumented aliens will be treated as nonresidents, even though they will pay in-state tuition rates. And that combination suggests that, in these tight economic times, undocumented aliens will be the least attractive students for college admissions officers.

In the photograph accompanying the article "History, drama at the close; College tuition breaks extended to illegals" (April 12), you show members of Casa de Maryland celebrating the passage of a bill allowing in-state college tuition fees for the children of illegal immigrants. Why, I wondered, isn't Casa de Maryland encouraging these young people to become citizens? Why aren't the people we elected interested in having them become citizens? Surely if any such interest existed, some stipulation could have been included in this bill requiring undocumented students to study for and become citizens as a condition of getting a tuition break.

The passage Friday of a bill in the Maryland House of Delegates extending in-state college tuition rates to children of undocumented immigrants who graduate from Maryland high schools opens the way for these young people to have a real shot at the American dream by going on to college. Though the debate over the issue has been spirited and at times contentious, in the end lawmakers did the right thing by recognizing how much the state's future depends on a highly educated workforce, and how badly it will need all the bright young minds it can get in order to grow and prosper.

There was much discussion but little in the way of fireworks Thursday as delegates opened the floor debate over controversial legislation to extend in-state tuition discounts to illegal immigrants at the state's public colleges and universities. The proposal, which has already passed the Senate, is scheduled for final consideration Friday morning in the House of Delegates. Gov. Martin O'Malley has said he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk. Thursday's discussion remained relatively technical, with 13 amendments offered and rejected as opponents unsuccessfully tried to chip away at the bill.

The state Senate is poised this week to take up a controversial plan to offer discounted tuition at Maryland's public colleges and universities to students who are in the country illegally. The legislation, which cleared the Senate education committee last week, would allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at any of Maryland's public community colleges. After completing two years of study, they could transfer to a four-year institution and continue to pay the in-state rate.

Maryland spends, on average, a total of nearly $200,000 each to educate its students from kindergarten through grade 12. Obviously, the state has a lot invested in every one of them — and just as obviously, it would be folly to throw any of it away. Yet that's precisely what the current rules regarding in-state college tuition rates for children of illegal immigrants seem designed to accomplish. While Maryland students who are U.S. citizens are automatically entitled to reduced rates at the state's public colleges and universities, those who aren't must pay out-of-state rates.

In his debate Thursday with Martin O'Malley, Bob Ehrlich compared poor foreigners who sneak into the United States to criminals who break into a home at night. He couldn't resist mocking Mr. O'Malley's odd and patronizing references to undocumented immigrants as "new Americans. " "If someone breaks into my house, is that a new member of my family that night?" Mr. Ehrlich asked, pleasing the xenophobes who broadly associate immigration with criminality in their ongoing effort to demonize the millions of men, women and children who have crossed U.S. borders in quest for a better life.