On May 10, 2011 Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed the so-called “Maryland DREAM Act” (SB-167). This law would offer in-state tuition rates at Maryland colleges and universities to illegal aliens who met certain requirements.
But by the end of June, no less than 132,071 Maryland voters had signed a petition to stop SB-167 and put it to a referendum in November 2012. This is the first successful petition drive in Maryland in twenty years. And (note to any GOP campaign consultants worried about cracking the “Blue States”) almost half of the signatures—far in excess of the 55,736 needed —came from Democrats and Independents.
Top Democratic Party lawyer Joseph E. Sandler, illegal alien support group CASA de Maryland, and 8 “Juan Does” have brought suit to stop the referendum. On December 5th, however, they were forced to admit that they could not challenge enough signatures to invalidate the petition.[Illegal Alien Activists End Challenge to “Sufficiency and Number” of Petitions to Put Maryland DREAM Act to Voter Referendum, December 7, 2011]
They then tried to claim SB-167 cannot be subject to referendum under Maryland law because it is an appropriations bill. But last week, the Circuit Court of Anne Arundel County ruled that SB-167 is not an appropriations bill.[JW VICTORY! Illegal Alien Tuition to Stay on Maryland Ballot!, February 24, 2012]
Obviously, CASA de Maryland did expect to win its own lawsuit, either. It is seeking to hire a professional fundraiser to raise $10 million to defeat the referendum in November.[Campaign Fundraising manager Job Posting, Casa de Maryland]
CASA claims that SB-167 will only benefit about 150 students, so that $10 million would go a long way towards endowing a permanent scholarship for needy illegals. Defeating the referendum is clearly about something other than deserving kids getting an education.
In another ominous sign, the radical-left A.N.S.W.E.R (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition has been brought into Maryland to intimidate voters.
A.N.S.W.E.R. is an initiative of the Stalin-era Worker’s World Party. In the past, it has had kind words to say about Iraqi insurgents who kill US troops, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il, Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, and cop-killing Black Panther, Jamil Al-Amin. [VDARE.com note: Jamil Al-Amin is H. Rap Brown, a violent militant during the 60s riots. Getting religion hasn’t changed him for the better.]
CASA de Maryland’s Executive Director, Gustavo Torres, is himself a big fan of Communists, terrorists and dictators, and CASA has received $1.5 million in donations from Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s state-owned CITGO. See CASA de Maryland: The Illegals’ ACORN, By James Simpson, Accuracy In Media, September 20, 2011.
A.N.S.W.E.R.’s website lists offices in many cities, but none in Maryland. When A.N.S.W.E.R showed up on February 11 in Rockville MD to protest a speech by one of the sponsors of the petition drive, I observed that the carpetbaggers arrived in cars bearing New York, Michigan, Florida, Virginia and DC plates.
Curiously, People for the American Way’s Michael B. Keegan, has not demanded that CASA disassociate itself from open communists—unlike his demand that GOP presidential candidates speaking at CPAC disassociate themselves from VDARE.com Editor Peter Brimelow, who is only an alleged “white nationalist”. What kind of “American way” is this? (Ask Keegan).
Even if CASA raises just half of its $10 million goal, it will still be able to out-spend the petition sponsor, MDPetitions.com, by at least an order of magnitude. Add in the resources of the Maryland Democratic Party, the Catholic Church and other religious denominations, leftist enforcer groups like A.N.S.W.E.R., la Raza, LULAC, and ACLU, and Big Business—it’s a true David vs. Goliath struggle.
Fortunately, their own opinion polls show that if the referendum were put to a vote today, it would win by a 3-to-1 margin.
The poll done by the other side was an internal focus group of different ways to word the referendum, done by Catholic Church and Governor O'Malley's pollster. A source who attended a Catholic activist training event said the poll showed that if the referendum were worded directly "in-state tuition for illegal immigrants" it lost 74-26.
This will be a test of whether grass-roots citizen efforts can prevail over oceans of out-of-state, radical left and corpocrat money.
Big Business itself hasn’t been particularly visible so far. It's mainly a coalition of religious groups spearheaded by the Catholic Church, and the Democratic Party. Both sides are building war chests and training organizers. It will be interesting to see who donates to "Educating Maryland Kids," [Email them]the group that CASA is fronting.
But Casa De Maryland is itself corporate-supported—CASA De Maryland’s donors’ list includes 40 businesses and corporations, as well as many foundations, organizations, congregations, and government organizations.
The Battle of Maryland promises to be an epic struggle with national significance. If in-state tuition for illegal aliens can be defeated in deep-blue Maryland, it will comfort and encourage patriotic state legislators across the country to rise up against “The Slave Power” and its leftist allies.
Mendez (email him) is active in Help Save Maryland, an organization dedicating to exposing illegal alien corruption in his state. His previous letters are here.
