Even as the Maryland Dream Act, which would grant instate tuition rates to eligible undocumented immigrants, faces a veto referendum in November, undocumented Marylanders have reason to celebrate. 1,000 or so “dreamers” came to CASA de Maryland in Langley Park Wednesday to begin applying to President Obama’s deferred deportation program.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was passed by executive order and grants two-year reprieves to eligible undocumented immigrants in the U.S. between the ages of 15 and 30. CASA expects to sign up as many 10,000 people for the program in Maryland. And they expect somewhere around 8,000 of them to apply to college.
That number is more than 20 times larger than was originally estimated when the General Assembly was calculating the cost of the Dream Act. That means that those who were already grumbling about “amnesty” and “rewarding lawbreakers” are only going to grumble louder. And it could spell even more certain doom for the bill.
