When Lawmakers in Howard County, Md., a stretch of suburbia between Washington and Baltimore, declared their intention to make the County a Sanctuary for people living in the Country Illegally, the Bill met stout opposition from an unlikely source, some of those very same Foreign-Born Residents.
Making Howard County a Sanctuary for Undocumented Immigrants had seemed a natural move. The County has twice as many Democrats as Republicans and a highly Educated population, full of scientists and engineers. One in five residents was born abroad.
In passionate testimony before County Legislators, and in tense Debates with Liberal Neighbors born in the United States, Legal Immigrants argued that offering Sanctuary to people who came to the Country Illegally devalued their own past struggles to gain Citizenship. Some even felt it threatened their hard-won hold on the American Dream.
Their objections stunned Democratic Supporters of Sanctuary here and helped bring about the Bill’s demise in March. A similar proposal for the State collapsed this month in the Maryland Senate, where Democrats also hold a two-to-one advantage. Some of the same Immigrants spoke out against it.
The failure of the Sanctuary Bills in Maryland reveals a potentially troublesome fissure for Democrats as they rush to defy Trump. Their Party has staked out an Activist position built around protecting Undocumented Immigrants. But it is one that has alienated many who might have been expected to support it.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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