When it comes to displaying contempt for immigration law, no Maryland politician, perhaps not even Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, surpasses Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan, who also wants to be the state’s next governor. In the state’s most populous subdivision, where the tenor of political discussion sometimes veers to the left of Massachusetts, welcoming illegal immigrants is good politics and good business: Lots of powerful and important politically progressive persons need nannies to look after their children, construction companies and small businesses benefit from an abundant source of cheap labor, and all of them can pretend that they too are humane, progressive and forward-looking because they provide gainful employment for the county’s illegal-immigrant underclass. And they — or at least some of their relatives who may be here legally — constitute a potentially powerful voting bloc that Democratic politicians want to court.
The arrogance of Montgomery’s political class was on full display several weeks ago, when Mr. Duncan, with day laborers serving as political props, spoke at the dedication of an employment center in Wheaton. According to The Washington Post, which ran a generally favorable account of the opening of the center, the office will be leased by the county for $64,000 a year and run by Casa de Maryland (perhaps the state’s leading advocacy group for illegals). According to one man, who said he had moved to Wheaton from Guatemala last year, the center faces a major obstacle: Illegal immigrants are wary of joining any institution. “This, for me, is really a problem. We are not documented. We are all without papers,” the man, who identified himself as Jose Roberto, 40, told The Post. “If we sign up, you never know what immigration [enforcement officials] are going to do.”
To no one’s surprise, Casa de Maryland officials say they will not ask people’s immigration status — and that’s perfectly fine with Mr. Duncan. Indeed, time and again, Mr. Duncan and other county politicians have worked to encourage those unlawfully in this country to live and work in Montgomery County. These policies have included: ordering local police not to cooperate with federal immigration authorities; voting en masse in Annapolis to give driver’s licenses and lower in-state tuition to illegals; permitting immigrants to use ID cards issued by foreign consulates, such as Mexico’s fraud-ridden matricula consular, to obtain county services; and encouraging illegals to enroll at Montgomery College.
The consequences of such policies as practiced nationwide can sometimes be catastrophic for law-abiding taxpayers and other residents of Montgomery County. Witness the October 2002 sniper shootings by Lee Boyd Malvo, an illegal who murdered six persons there. Then, there’s the case of Jose Alvarado, an illegal immigrant who molested a child, was deported to El Salvador, then returned to the county and molested another child two years ago.
Unfortunately, Mr. Duncan and his cohorts have not been moved by the human cost of the policies they advocate, so maybe they will better understand if they are hit with financial penalties. It’s time to start deducting from the federal and state aid that the county receives, so long as its pandering politicians insist on flouting the law. We also would suggest that Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents start visiting Mr. Duncan’s day-laborer center near Veirs Mill Road in the next few days.
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