WaPo Editorial: The misplaced anger against Maryland’s Dream Act

[pampango]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-misplaced-anger-against-marylands-dream-act/2011/07/12/gIQArFwzEI_story.html

Times of economic duress have traditionally fed such anti-immigration fervor in America, in the past directed at Irish, Italians, Chinese and others seen as outsiders. Maryland’s jobless rate of 6.8 percent, while much lower than the national average, remains almost double its level before the recession. In the Free State, as elsewhere, many Americans worry that any government benefits extended to undocumented immigrants may somehow result in a zero-sum calculus, depriving financially stressed citizens of assistance to which they are rightfully entitled.

The concerns about Maryland’s Dream Act are understandable; they’re also misplaced. They fail to recognize that the law is overwhelmingly in the state’s interest. Implement it, and thousands of ambitious, promising youngsters who have grown up in Maryland will have a chance to realize their potential as productive, taxpaying members of society. Repeal it, and those same youngsters will swell the ranks of the underclass, paying less in taxes, consuming more in services and living lives soured by the frustration of unrealized potential.

Opponents of the measure include every Republican in the state legislature, plus a handful of Democrats. They argue that granting tuition breaks to illegal immigrants would cost the state’s university system heavily in terms of lost tuition revenue. In fact, the cost issue is a red herring.

Opponents argue that the Dream Act will make Maryland a magnet for further illegal immigration, thereby stiffening competition for jobs that native Marylanders could fill. In fact, numerous studies have shown that immigrants don’t steal jobs; they create them by expanding the scope of economic activity. That’s particularly true of better-educated immigrants.