Approximately 85 of Maryland’s religious organizations, schools and neighborhood groups are banding together to fight for state legislation known as the Dream Act, which would allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition.

The group, led by the Maryland Industrial Areas Foundation, a coalition of liberal activists, consists mostly of groups from Montgomery and Howard counties and Baltimore. On Wednesday, the group gathered 70 clergy at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Silver Spring to train them in the language and the teachings of the grassroots movement.