Anti-illegal immigration advocate wants county contractors to verify worker eligibility
By HEATHER KEELS
January 12, 2010


WASHINGTON COUNTY — A local anti-illegal immigration advocate wants Washington County to require all of its contractors to use a free online system called E-Verify to check their employees’ eligibility to work in the United States.

Jeffrey A. Werner of Hagerstown presented his request to the Washington County Commissioners Tuesday. He was accompanied by Brad Botwin, founder and director of Help Save Maryland, a citizens’ organization that opposes the use of tax dollars on programs and services for illegal immigrants.

The commissioners did not respond to the request during Tuesday’s meeting.

Werner cited a 2009 report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, that estimated Maryland’s illegal immigrant population at 250,000. Based on that figure, FAIR estimated that taxpayers in Maryland pay more than $1.4 billion a year, or $790 a year per household, for education, health care and incarceration of illegal immigrants.

“With budget deficits increasing from here to Annapolis, we can no longer be so generous with our limited tax dollars,â€