State and county budget problems, last week’s release of federal Real ID regulations and a hotly contested Republican congressional primary on the Eastern Shore are making illegal immigration a hot topic for Maryland lawmakers this year.
Gov. Martin O’Malley announced this week that he wants transportation officials to comply with federal Real ID requirements that require immigrants to prove they are in the country legally in order to drive, prompting some immigrant advocates to say he has caved to anti-illegal-immigration rhetoric.
O’Malley’s spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said the governor did not want Maryland, now one of only seven states in which illegal immigrants can legally drive, to “become an island on the East Coast where undocumented, illegal immigrants are able to get driver’s licenses.”
Maryland lists only seven bills under the subhead of “alien” issues in its legislative database system, unlike in Virginia, where analysts say more than 100 bills are tied to immigration-related issues.
The bulk of Maryland bills addressing illegal immigration carry the name of either Sen. Andy Harris or Sen. E.J. Pipkin, both of whom are locked in a heated Republican primary battle to represent Maryland’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House.
Pipkin says he is backing a bill that would deny public benefits such as in-state tuition, driver’s licenses and bail to illegal immigrants because his constituents, upset about recent tax increases, don’t want any state services going to “people who shouldn’t be here.”
Pipkin is also sponsoring a bill to study how much illegal immigration costs the state, which Senate President and top Democrat Thomas V. Mike Miller said was a “good bill,” suggesting the state may find illegal immigrants are a net economic benefit.
Harris is sponsoring legislation that would bar Maryland from granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants and co-sponsoring a bill to forbid Maryland to grant driver’s licenses to people here illegally.
Neither has signed onto the other’s legislation yet, leading to allegations from some Democratic lawmakers that the bills are motivated more by politics than by issue.
“I think we have clearly seen that this is being used as a wedge issue to see which candidate can outdo each other on these issues,” said Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez, D-Montgomery.
