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  1. #1
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    Maryland bill opposes illegals as drivers

    Maryland bill opposes illegals as drivers


    November 17, 2007


    By Tom LoBianco - ANNAPOLIS — A Republican senator plans to introduce a bill today during the General Assembly's special session that would bar illegal aliens from getting driver's licenses in Maryland.

    Sen. E.J. Pipkin, Eastern Shore Republican, said he will introduce the measure with a second bill calling on officials to conduct a study to determine how much the state spends providing services to illegal aliens.

    "The Annapolis tax-and-spend crowd has spent the last three weeks raising taxes. I introduced a billion dollars in spending cuts, and the Senate refused to adopt them," Mr. Pipkin said. "I am now asking the legislature to take action concerning illegal aliens and their impact on the state's budget."

    Mr. Pipkin's proposal would bar illegal aliens from receiving any state aid, including in-state tuition at Maryland colleges and universities.

    But legislative leaders yesterday said it was unlikely the bills would be considered during the special session.

    "This is an issue that the federal government has punted for years," said Lisa Fulton, a spokeswoman for Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., Southern Maryland Democrat. "While it is provocative for Senator Pipkin to spark debate on policy as complex as immigration during the final days of a three-week special session to address the state budget, the issue deserves more than a few days to consider."

    A spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley said he would not comment because he had not yet seen the bills, copies of which were obtained by The Washington Times.

    Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, opened the special session on Oct. 29 to close the state's $1.5 billion budget shortfall. But he, Mr. Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch, Anne Arundel Democrat, have supported other measures during the session — including earmarking $50 million to clean the Chesapeake Bay and diverting half of a planned sales-tax increase to raise spending on transportation projects.

    In a statewide poll released last month by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies, Marylanders identified "illegal immigration" as the sixth-most-important issue facing the state — ahead of transportation, the environment or slot-machine gambling.

    Republican legislators have introduced similar measures to prohibit illegal aliens from getting driver's licenses in the past four sessions of the General Assembly with no success. The issue gained new momentum this week when New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, retreated from a plan to issue licenses to illegal aliens.

    Republicans said they would lobby to reverse laws in the eight remaining states, including Maryland, that issue licenses to illegal aliens.

    Mr. Pipkin's bill would also put the state in compliance with federal law. Maryland has until May to comply with the federal Real ID Act act but may apply for a waiver that would last until December 2009.

    If the state does not comply with the act, state driver's licenses would no longer be accepted identification for entrance into federal buildings or travel on airplanes.

    Barring illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses became a bigger issue for many state lawmakers after an Iraq war veteran was killed in a car accident involving an illegal alien in Howard County last Thanksgiving.

    Police arrested Eduardo Raul Morales-Soriano, 25, an illegal alien from Mexico, and charged him with drunken driving and two counts each of vehicular homicide and manslaughter while intoxicated in the crash that killed Cpl. Brian Mathews of Columbia, Md.

    Mr. O'Malley said last spring that he would support in-state tuition for illegal aliens, but a measure granting the privilege died in the Senate. Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, vetoed a bill that lawmakers approved in 2003 that would have granted in-state tuition to illegal aliens.

    Roughly 250,000 illegal aliens live in the state, according to CASA of Maryland, but it is not clear how many of them attend state colleges and universities.


    www.washingtontimes.com
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  2. #2
    Senior Member ourcountrynottheirs's Avatar
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    Maybe they should ask the people of Maryland what THEY want.
    avatar:*912 March in DC

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