What part of "illegal" do these morons not understand? The issue is not whether or not these people are human...of course they are...the issue is whether they are stealing away services from our law-abiding legal citizens...which they are! We wonder why health care is unaffordable? Why classrooms are too small? Why are our jails are overcrowded?

"...to allow undocumented immigrants who have lived in Maryland for a length of time to pay in-state tuition at Maryland universities and community colleges."

Let me get this straight. Break the law long enough, then you get rewarded with in state tuition? What an incentive. And you wonder why I don't want O'Malley to raise my taxes?

By the way, let's not be so blindly PC and call it what it is: Undocumented=Illegal.

I'm in favor of a much more expansive immigration policy and don't really mind illegal immigration. However, it's idiotic to compare the plight of illegal immigrants who may have to pay higher rates for higher education to the plight of slaves. I'm sorry to inform Delegate Stukes, but no one has a right to pay in-state tuition. That is a privilege granted to certain people. Slavery, on the other hand, took away fundamental human rights. To even compare the two shows an appalling lack of history and trivializes slavery. Stukes should be ashamed for such grandstanding.

Plus, Stukes also shows an amazing lack of knowledge on the reason behind the 3/5 clause in the Constitution. I'm amazed that someone with such a poor grasp of history could get elected. Well, in this state, maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

I love this part of the article:
"After swearing on oath that we would not do this, we are aiding and abetting people who are in this state illegally," Del. Pat McDonough, a Baltimore County Republican, told his colleagues..... The comments infuriated many Democrats.

So maybe the Democrats can explain how giving illegals in-state tuition is not aiding and abetting??

It didn't take the Democrat House long to undermine the rule of law. Which delegate do I sue first?

In-county students get a lower tuition rate than out-of-county and out-of-state students because they or their parents are paying taxes that subsidize their educations. Undocumented immigrants also pay county taxes, at least in the form of sales taxes and gasoline taxes, and the more education they get, the more money they earn and the more taxes they pay.
It is time for conservatives to face the fact that they cannot round up and deport these people they consider criminals, so they might as well concentrate on developing their potential as workers, neighbors, and citizens.

Great! More tax dollars down the drain. For illegal immigrants. What about American's that need help? Americans do not count anymore! The Facts via Homeland Security Reports: $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally. 17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year. Every day 12 Americans are murdered by an illegal alien. Another 13 Americans are killed by uninsured drunk illegal aliens and Eight American Children are victims of a sex crime committed by an illegal alien each day! Need I say more?

Hey anonymous, if they are here in violation of this nation's immigration laws, then there are criminals. A lot of these people work cash-only jobs to avoid paying their fair share of the taxes.

It's time for liberals to face the facts that the people they elect undermine the rule of law and call all of our freedoms into question.

Since when did law=right?

Under slavery?

Under Jim Crow?

Before women had the right to vote?

Under segregation?

Under apartheid?

You right wing-nut jobs will protect the "rule of law" till were putting immigrants in concentration camps or jail instead of teaching them to be good citizens and givng them the protection that the Declaration of Indepedence (not a law, by the way) says is unalienable to all humans whether they are "legal" or not.

But let's talk about enforcing gun laws and then all of a sudden that great birth right of gun ownership becomes part of the natural order of the universe.

You people kill me...

As a legal immigrant (now an American citizen), I spent years in queue (filling out paper work, getting the proper documents, paying the immigration fees, traveling hundreds of miles to the US consulate, etc) while waiting for my turn to come to this country LEGALLY.

Every illegal in this country is a slap in my face. They simply walked across the border, waded across the river, or over stayed their tourist visa. They are law breakers!

To those who want to grant amnesty to all the illegals, answer this question for me: why would someone like me bother to get here legally?

There are so many hardworking people in this country trying to make a living to support their families back home. Yes, they made a bad choice to enter illegally. But they're in the county and most pay taxes they'll never get back. Many own homes and pay the associated property taxes. They're participating in this society and should be allowed to apply for visa for blue collar workers if the federal government would just wake up and realize that it's a myth that there are American workers out there just waiting in line to take these low-paying crappy jobs.

That does it for me. I have been admitted to UMD (as as out-of-state student) and to Virginia Tech (in state). UMD can go to h***. I'm going to Virginia Tech.

M - What does all that have to with giving illegals in-state tuition? After they graduate, are going back to work cleaning bathrooms and digging ditches?

Paying taxes doesn't mean that you get to break the law. If breaking the law to support your family is okay, then why do we bother locking up drug dealers or anybody who's working and paying taxes? If I get pulled over for a traffic violation I'll have to try that defense. *Your Honor, I was breaking the law...but I pay taxes and was on the way to the job I have to support my kids and sick mother, so it's okay, right?*

It pains me to agree with the more conservative side of this issue; a first for me. I realize there are statute of limitations to most crimes in the US but this strikes me as a slap in the face to not only hard-working middle-class Americans but also other immigrants and transplants doing things legally. What they are doing is wrong and deceitful to say the least. I don't care how they try to make up for it by working admittedly crap jobs. I don't believe these breaks are available to other law-breakers.

Help me understand . . . if I'm an American Citizen and live out of state, then I have to pay out-of-state tuition, right? If I'm here illegally and I've broken the law to get here, I can get in-state tuition because there is sympathy to me being a working illegal. I get it now . . . the laws aren't meant to be enforced for all law-breakers, just certain people. Illegals don't have to follow the law just so-called American citizens?????

Nobody's saying that anybody is less than a whole human being. What is being said that the some people in Md are less than legal and, therefore, should not enjoy the same right as the legals.

Unbelievable... How many wrongs does it take to make a right?

It's about time...I hope it passes in the Senate.

Bad news for you, Larry Bud, but your only real choices are the rule of law or tyranny. You left-wing nutjobs think you can get good people to back down by flapping your arms and squawking "Nazi" long enough.

We law-abiding Americans only ask that others obey the laws as we do. Why are you so afraid of that?

When are the congressmen going to realize that education is a privilege? Why should a privilege be extended to a group that does not know rule of law?

There is really not much point in calling these folks **illegal** anymore in MD. Not when you grant them college subsidies, build employment stations, and license them to drive. Democrats are now quietly discussing registering them to VOTE. This last election will be remembered as **The disaster of Oh-Six.**

What a slap in the face to Maryland taxpayers? Why don't we just establish a fund to allow EVERY foreign student legal or illegal the privilage of in-state tuition? Gov. O'Maley is already underfunding the state schools, and now the state legislature wants to zap the general fund even more by extending this PRIVILAGE to ILLEGAL imigrants? The second-richest state in the country is approaching a financial crisis with a record defecit likely in 2008, but the legislature just goes on spending money wastefully in the name of communism!

This makes me so glad I live in VA. So, it's ok for me to come to this country and break the law, but I'm still entitled to an education? If they can afford to pay for school then they can afford to come to the country legally, or pay the fees to become legal. ok, and then my illegal behind graduates from college. What do I do? It's against the law to hire illegal immigrants. So what was it all for? I paid upwards of $30k to go back to manual labor? I'll stay on this side of the potomac where the only thing I have to worry about is having my name published if I buy a gun.

It's incredible how much legislators cater to undocumented people in this country. Highly-educated immigrants pay thousands of dollars to immigration lawyers to make sure they stay in status, and pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes without being able to apply for benefits like unemployment insurance and federal student loans. In the meantime, legislators (which I'm sure are being swayed by lobbying groups like La Raza) are giving away all kinds of benefits such as emergency room medical care and in-state tuition to undocumented people, people who seldom made the effort to be here legally. And to those who say that the majority of these undocumented people pay taxes properly, you are incorrect. They are usually either filing under someone else's SSN (sometimes a stranger's, sometimes a relative's) or not filing at all because they are paid by cash. Occasionally, they file with an ITIN. The lack of tax returns and usual employment docs (like 1099s and W2s) is why it's really hard for them to produce evidence when there is an amnesty and they need to submit documentation of continued employment. This needs to stop! It has nothing to do with human rights or slavery or anything. While we're at it, the DMV can give licensing preference to people with fake IDs and DUI records, to add to the madness. Try that one, and have all the drivers with clean records stand on line behind these people.

IF you are so sure illegal immigrants are not apporting that much money to this economy, you are so wrong and tha makes you an ignorant, because many cities arround the country have become more eccomicly active, how do you think you can afford an ecomic meal at a retaurant. I'm and illegal one and I apport more to this country than people born here have. I also have created more jobs than many people born here will ever create, also paid all kinds of taxes for example' collected sales taxes property taxes, corporate taxes etc.So that count for the so desire jobs that illegals are taking away from us borns. Youi guys have forgotten that the american drean isn't given to you, it has to be taken by working hard. If you are sitting on your butt all day long expecting to be giving to to you by the grace of the lord just becsuse you are born here, Then you shouldn't complaint when other people come from overseas and take it before you do.

Um, the reason why they are allowing for in-state tuition is because they have paid taxes and have subsidized the universities, regardless of their legal status. I'm not disputing that they aren't breaking the law, my point is that I don't understand why people equate this as unfair to out-of-state residents. But that isn't why I'm for allowing it. I'm actually for it because I'd rather have a smart illegal getting into a state school than a stupid, "I'm entitled" resident. Why should I be forced to pay for a sub-par student to get education over a motivated student just because of imigration status. Survival of the fittest...let the educational 'market' decide...

IF you are so sure illegal immigrants are not apporting that much money to this economy, you are so wrong and tha makes you an ignorant, because many cities arround the country have become more eccomicly active, how do you think you can afford an ecomic meal at a retaurant. I'm and illegal one and I apport more to this country than people born here have. I also have created more jobs than many people born here will ever create, also paid all kinds of taxes for example' collected sales taxes property taxes, corporate taxes etc.So that count for the so desire jobs that illegals are taking away from us borns. Youi guys have forgotten that the american drean isn't given to you, it has to be taken by working hard. If you are sitting on your butt all day long expecting to be giving to to you by the grace of the lord just becsuse you are born here, Then you shouldn't complaint when other people come from overseas and take it before you do.

Oh, and PS: For the person who said that the only thing illegal immigrants did to get here was walk accross the border...I'm sorry but have you SEEN the border? I'm from southern AZ and people die every year crossing it. Getting here illegally isn't just a stroll in the park; people die all the time. Again, this doesn't justify their illegal migration (trying to understand somebody's position doesn't mean you agree with them) but I think that you need to give them some credit for risking their life and limb to have the opportunity to make their lives better.

I believe there's a class action lawsuit going in California about this very issue filed by out-of-state students, who don't think they, as legal residents of the country, should have to pay higher tuition to a United States institution of higher education than someone in the country illegally, state residency notwithstanding (because you can't be a resident of a state if you're not first a resident of the country). Since so much of college tuition is financed through federal government loans and grants, this makes this more than a state issue. Knee-jerk liberal that I am, I do support them on this.

Hmmm...that is intersting. And you make a good point about the loans/grants. I guess I would say that you shouldn't have to demonstate citizenship for loans but definately for grants. I personally wish that loans would be hard to get for everbody since that is why colleges are able to increase their tuition at twice the rate of inflation. But until that happens, let the best qualified in even if they have to borrow.

Colombia MD -so using your logic --it is ok to break the law risking life and limb because I only want to better my life.... you of course dont mind if I steal from your personal property-- I only want to make my life better ,right? Maybe I take from your relatives too. You wouldnt mind correct? and your relatives relatives? that should be ok as well. Colombia--just because you need doesn't give the right to take.This is exactly how each who is entering illegally is acting. When the time comes that they come breaking into your house maybe you wont be so willing to give it up..or maybe you would. I am not.

K- So much for reading for comprehension. Nope, I didn't say that at all. And you have *no* clue what you are talking about any way...My parents' house is on the border so between the two of us I'm pretty sure I know more about the potential security issues of illegal crossings. Beside, are you saying that because you are 'legal' you would do those things? The point I was making that you so woefully missed is that I'm okay with legislating that illegal immigrants to get instate tuition. Not that they get the right the right to rape and pillage. Unlike you I don't equate the two.

Colombia-My comprehension is just fine. How are you so sure I dont have a clue and that you know more about the subject?Do tell. Because of your parents' house and its proximity to the border? Surely you are smoking something. If you can take a moment to think outside your single digit IQ box I am merely pointing out that if you feel it is ok for someone who is here illegally to receive a state allocated assistance then of course it must be ok for you to provide your own hard earned resources as well. In essence that is exactly what you are doing. and giving the ok to give away the resources of others who dont agree ith you. and supplying limited resources that should be going to American citizens and those here immigrating legally. This is not a never ending open faucet.Who said anything about equating raping and pillaging? 1 plus 1 does not equal 5.But hey, tell us all please what you are doing to personally help? I admit,I am not interestd to help someone here illegally but you go right ahead.

It is official, the Maryland Legislator has endorsed the INVASION. No more rule of law, no rights of citizenship, the rest of us are just a target for the criminals sanctioning our replacement. This is the last straw! I will no longer support this tyranny!

"Undocumented immigrants also pay county taxes, at least in the form of sales taxes and gasoline taxes, and the more education they get, the more money they earn and the more taxes they pay."

....and that is more money that they send back home, which is less money that remains in our economy.

"you need to give them some credit for risking their life and limb to have the opportunity to make their lives better."

Are you kidding?! If they want better lives, let them do it legally. Clearly, these people do not have any regard for laws and regulations. They think that the rules don't apply to them. We end up subsidizing their illegal existence.

Marylanders need to sue the state government for aiding and abetting illegals. I will not file state taxes while living in this bs state.

Why does the Post not put bill numbers in articles, and link to the information about them on the General Assembly's website?

Any illegal aliens applying for the in-state tuition should be promptly handed over to the Federal authorities and deported.

Let's make sure those who self-identify are reported to the proper authorities for further action. Call it a law-abiding revolution.

Twilight of the Empire.

It's a slap on the face of legal immigrants,who have spent years of time and thousands of dollars and paying ritually ALL TAXES ON PAR WITH ANY OTHER US CITIZENS in keeping them selves in LEGAL status. I am on H-1 status for last 7 years and my dependents are not allowed to work in US as long as I don't get Green Card. Even after I am a resident of MD and paying taxes my son has to pay OUT-STATE tuition fee in Maryland university.

Has any one either in senate or House thought about what should be done for all Legal Immigrants. Does it take 7 years to provide green cards for legal immigrants. Is that the Govt. wants or preaching to Stay in US as illegally rather than LEGALLY and enjoy the benefits more than a US citizen or Legal immigrants.

When Illegals can pay in-state tuition why can not a US citizen from other state or a LEGAL immigrant can not have that privilege.

I disagree to give privileges to ILLEGAL immigrants drug dealers.

I hate to say it, but we are confusing ourselves between economic worth and legality. Illegal is illegal. No two ways about it. The weakness is in a political system in bed with business, willing to let anything slide for cheap labor. The US wouldn't be half the economic power it is without the base created during slavery. No matter how much employers crave the cheap labor for their crappy, dead-end jobs, they are breaking the law to bring them here, employing them, housing them, sheltering them, aiding and abetting them in any way. We need to go after the employers, get the money at the source. Foe every illegal they hire and pay, they pay twice as much as a surcharge to cover the cost of the illegals being here, plus all the legal and court costs to send them back home. No one here illegally should get anything a citizen has the right to. Not a dime, not a bite of welfare food, not one shot or medication that others have to pay for, not one free clinic. Illegal is illegal. Period.

I agree with just about all the staements made on here...except, of Columbia's. I also feel there are Marylander's and American Citizen's out there willing to take these "crap" jobs..They are our teens, who now are having trouble getting after school and summer jobs because these jobs are being filled by illegals. Many people in years past have learned their trades, careers etc. by working these after school, weekend and summer jobs..now those jobs are not available to our children to have and acquire a base knowledge of the working world and a possibly a step in the direction of a career.I also heard, so I can't say for sure, that one of the reasons this bill is being supported is that we already are giving the illegals a free education in our schools anyway so we might as well let them have a reduced tuition for college.I have friends that are both Republicans and Democrats and illegal immigration is the one thing we all seem to agree on. We have no problem with legal immigrants but we do with illegal ones.That is the bottome line.I am sick to death of being politically correct..no in-state-tuition, no health care, no welfare...maybe they should go back home and work for all the American companies that have layed off Ameican Citizens to move their business to other countries. So many of them have done that now that I am sure there are good jobs for them to go back to.

For God, there is no difference between legal or illegal immigrant, born or foreign born. Everybody is the same, everybody deserves education on planet Earth. Congratulations Maryland House

Does anyone know if the preconditions of this are that they actually file income tax in Maryland? If so I don't have a big problem with it.

But if not, no way, unless the State of Maryland decides to elimenate the state income tax altogether and make everything based on sales tax like Deleware

Also if I were a republican, I would keep this on the radar for two years if I could, this is hands down a 70-30 unpopular vote that could be very effective in 2008. So if I were a republican, it might actually make me happy. :)

Deportation as a revenue-saving process? Go for it!

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