Politics & Government

OPINION: Baltimore County Young Democrats President Defends DREAM Act

The following letter was submitted by Sean Rutherford, president of the Baltimore County Young Democrats, via email to Patch editor Nick Gestido.

Dear Editor,

Amongst all the clamor and misinformation regarding Senate Bill 167 Public Institutions of Higher Education-Tuition Rates-Exemptions, more widely known as the Maryland DREAM Act, there has been little factual debate about the merits of this contentious law.  Delegate Pat McDonough, a chief opponent of the legislation, was recently quoted as saying that proponents of the DREAM Act are “playing the race card because they can’t win the argument on the merits.”  I’m more than willing to discuss the merits of the argument, and leave race completely out of it.

The group of people that SB167 is designed to help are students; educated children of undocumented workers.  By the definition of this law, every student must have graduated with a diploma from a Maryland high school after attending for at least three years.  The only people the DREAM Act can legally help were children when they were involuntarily brought into this country.  They were not then, and are not now, guilty or complicit in breaking that law.  The DREAM Act does not offer any assistance to the adults who illegally entered this nation, only the children they took with them.  In our country, we don’t punish someone for the sins of their fathers.  The people this bill helps were brought into America as minors; they’ve spent much, if not most of their life in this country, in our State.  The US Supreme Court, in Plyler v. Doe (1982), struck down a Texas statute that denied funding for education to children brought illegally into our country.  The Court asserted that children have little control over the consequences of being brought into this country illegally, and should not be denied the rights afforded any other children in that State.  Further, the Court declared that not educating these children is “surely adding to the problems and costs of unemployment, welfare, and crime.”  

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We cannot afford to deny these students a higher education.  That landmark case gave the children of undocumented workers the right to a K-12 education.  That basic education is no longer enough in today’s more complicated, faster-paced, ever-evolving market.  SB167 is estimated to cost 3.5 million dollars by 2016.  According to the Center for American Progress, if we tried to deport every illegal immigrant, the likely dubbed “War on Illegals” would cost approximately 5 billion dollars over a similar five-year period.  When given the economic choice between education and deportation, the answer is obvious: we must educate them. 

Most opponents of this legislation tend to believe that it gives students in-state tuition to the more expensive and prestigious University of Maryland, College Park: a subsidy of nearly $16,000 a year.  This piece of information is absolutely incorrect and those who believe it are being purposefully misled.  The DREAM Act, by its very words, only offers in-state tuition for students to attend community college.  Annual tuition at the Community College of Baltimore County is $3,000 a year for in-state students, and approximately $9,000 for out-of-state students.  That’s a difference of $6,000 a year, not the more commonly quoted $16,000 difference.  With so much deliberate misinformation flying around, no wonder it’s hard for people to get a firm handle on this issue.

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If, and only if, these students graduate from community college can they apply for a four-year college, and they will still have to be accepted solely on their academic merits.  Graduating from college is no easy goal, and is surely not for the ambition-less.  The DREAM Act only gives Maryland’s driven, hard working, young people assistance on their quest for an education.  I believe that educating Maryland’s aspiring young people is something that everyone can agree on.  Until we can put aside the rhetoric and politicking, as well as the vitriol and hate, and start listening to the facts, we will not be able to work together and achieve the best results for Maryland.

Sincerely,                                                                       

Sean Rutherford                                                           
President                                                                       
Baltimore County Young Democrats                                   


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