Petition Effort on Tuition Bill Gets Started in County

Residents and delegates from all over Anne Arundel County gathered Monday night to kick off a petition drive aimed at overturning new legislation that grants to the children of illegal immigrants.

Delegate Nicholaus R. Kipke (R-Pasadena) hosted about 20 people at Kaufmann’s Tavern in Gambrills, offering a quick tutorial on plans to collect tens of thousands of signatures over the next three months.

The Maryland legislature last month narrowly approved the Maryland DREAM Act, which grants in-state tuition to students who may not reside in the state legally. Supporters pushed for the bill on grounds that illegal immigrants pay taxes that contribute to resident subsidies and that everyone benefits when undocumented people receive higher education.

Kipke and the volunteers said they opposed the measure on grounds of fairness, but also expressed concern over the fiscal impact of the law. 

The petition drive seeks to put the bill on the ballot in the 2012 general election. Ten other states have passed bills allowing for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, but there have been numerous recent efforts to repeal. 

“We just can’t afford it,” Kipke said. “We’re already worried about what we can afford to cut but here we’d be adding liability to the taxpayers of the state.”

State analysts said the bill could cost about $3.5 million by 2016.

“I think we can all agree we have to have common decency toward people, but when it comes to giving privileges of citizenship I think most of us here believe there’s a process,” said Mike Davis of Severna Park. “Just walking across the border negates that process.”

Brenda Yarema, a ministry director at Towson University, said she was philosophically opposed to the bill, but said her biggest concern is ensuring that voters had their say.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re for or against it, the financials or anything else. The voters should decide,” she said.

To get the measure before voters in 2012, organizers must collect 18,000 signatures by the end of May, 58,000 signatures by the end of June and 100,000 by the end of July.

Kipke said about 2,000 signatures have been acquired since the statewide petition campaign began last week.

While the petition drive is taking place all over the state, organizers are looking hard at Anne Arundel County because of its relatively dense population and high-percentage of right-leaning voters.

“This is ripe territory, because people tend to think the same way, but you can also get a lot more signatures,” Kipke said. “We need a big turnout in Anne Arundel County. We could be the ones to swing this to the positive side.”