Pat McDonough must be one of those guys who likes ice-skating uphill.
McDonough is a delegate from District 7 — which comprises parts of Baltimore and Harford counties — in the Maryland General Assembly. He’s a Republican, and on the matter of illegal immigration, his views are more akin to those in Arizona’s legislature, which recently passed a bill allowing police who make perfectly legal stops to question those stopped about their immigration status.
That’s why McDonough has said he will introduce a bill in Maryland that is precisely the same as Arizona’s. His proposed bill faces only one problem: Maryland Democrats.
The lead Democrat in this state is Gov. Martin O’Malley, whose reaction to the Arizona law was summed up by Shaun Adamec, one of his spokesmen:
“[The governor] said it’s not an appropriate use of local law enforcement to be acting as immigration officers, and that this is a uniquely federal issue that needs real reform, addressed by Congress.”
O’Malley is wrong on two counts. It is local cops, not immigration officials, who are most likely to come into contact with illegal immigrants.
And the Arizona law doesn’t require Arizona cops to act as immigration officers. In fact, it specifically states that those whom law enforcement officers suspect of being illegal immigrants are to be handed over to federal authorities. It says that Arizona’s law enforcement officers will give “cooperation and assistance in enforcement of immigration laws.”
It also says this: “For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other subdivision of this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person. The person’s immigration status shall be verified with the federal government pursuant to … United States Code Section 1373(c).”
I italicized the words “reasonable suspicion” for a reason: It is reasonable suspicion that is required for police to make what is known as a “Terry stop,” which allows them not only to stop those they reasonably suspect of being engaged in criminal activity, but also to search and question them as well.
O’Malley should be familiar with Terry stops. As Baltimore’s mayor, he had city police make them frequently. But not all of them were legal. When police make Terry stops, they have to provide documentation.
A Baltimore Circuit Court judge took city police to task for not providing such documentation, and the illegal police activity took place during O’Malley’s administration.
Therein lies McDonough’s problem: Maryland Democrats have a propensity for breaking the law themselves. There’s little chance they’ll pass one — or that O’Malley will sign one — targeting illegal immigrants. In addition to the Terry stops, O’Malley also illegally fired former Baltimore City police Commissioner Kevin Clark.
That’s not my assessment; state courts have so ruled. Democrats in the Legislature are no better than O’Malley. The truth is, they’re worse.
During the 2009 General Assembly session, when they were supposed to pass a bill requiring that illegal immigrants comply with the federal Real ID Act, state lawmakers decided to openly defy the law of the land by allowing Maryland’s 350,000 illegal immigrants to renew their licenses.
Maryland remains the only state east of the Mississippi not in compliance with the Real ID Act. And O’Malley has made it clear that local police will not ask illegal immigrants stopped for traffic offenses to provide any valid identification. Illegal immigrants can rest assured Maryland remains the nation’s No. 1 sanctuary state.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
