Howard County Residents Voice Opposition to Maryland DREAM Act

On Wednesday evening, the Maryland DREAM Act took the floor in Annapolis.

But Howard County residents made their stance clear at the Feb. 23 delegation hearing in Ellicott City, two weeks before the issue came up for debate among legislators.

Several residents shared their reasons for opposing the bill, which would allow students to pay in-state college tuition regardless of their immigration status.

“People confuse me with an ATM machine,” said Ellicott City resident Chris Oxenham. He went to the University of Maryland and paid in-state tuition, he said, a right that he earned because his parents were taxpaying citizens.

“[Now] I own a business out in Glenelg….There are business people out here, and we are being taxed to death," he said. "Make [immigrants] pay the full tuition that everybody out of state has to pay.”

In addition to protests that additional students would put a strain on taxpayers, some residents pointed to how much immigrants were already costing the public education system.

Kathleen Newberry said that children in Howard County public schools were crammed into classrooms with 30 or more students.

“Last time I checked, it cost Howard County alone over three-million taxpayer dollars” to accommodate immigrants, Newberry said. “This bill would actually invite more illegal Marylanders. It sends the message that ‘You can break the law, and we’ll pay you for it.’ ”