When Maryland voters go to the polls Tuesday, they will be determining the fate of a referendum issue that could have widespread implications across the nation, despite directly impacting the higher education plans of only several hundred students in the state.
On Question 4, Maryland voters will decide whether to approve or reject the state legislature’s adoption in 2010 of the Maryland Dream Act, a proposed law allowing some undocumented immigrants who have been in the state for years the right to pay in-state tuition rather than higher out-of-state fees.
The law, narrowly passed by the state legislature on the final day of its 2010 session, made Maryland the 12th state in the nation to approve some variation of a DREAM Act law. While opponents in most states have let the legislation alone after passage, legislative opponents of the Maryland Dream Act seized the issue soon after their session and easily collected the more than 100,000 signatures needed to put the legislative act to popular vote.
Thus, the Maryland law is on hold pending next week’s vote, despite widespread support in the state’s higher education community, traditional civil rights and labor communities.
Should the law pass, its supporters, including many state higher education leaders, say the measure will go a long way toward making higher education accessible to high school and college-age young people who are in the state and country illegally through no fault of their own.
Many of the children covered by the Maryland DREAM Act were brought to the United States at a young age by parents or guardians who entered illegally, not knowing their children would later face legal hurdles to an education because they are illegal.
Voter rejection of Question 4 could fuel more anti-immigration fires in Maryland and feed roll-back efforts in states where the issue is pending and is considered resolved, supporters say.
