undocumented immigrants – Baltimore Magazine

Local Leaders Call on Trump to Protect “Dreamers”

Michelle Evans — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 15:34:00 +0000

Update September 5: On Tuesday, President Trump announced, via Jeff Sessions, that the DACA program would be suspended.

“I am here today to announce that the program known as DACA that was effectuated under the Obama administration is being rescinded,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The Department of Homeland Security will cease processing new applications for the program effective Tuesday, however the administration plans to continue to renew permits for those expiring in the next six months. No one’s status will be revoked before it has expired and many applications received on Tuesday will still be processed.

The move to end the program puts Congress on a deadline to come up with a solution that will protect DACA participants who—under this new ruling—begin losing their status March 5, 2018.

If Congress does not act, nearly 300,000 people would lose their DACA status in 2018 and more than 320,000 more in 2019.

President Donald Trump is expected to dismantle a program put in place by former president Barack Obama that allows hundreds of thousands of children brought to the U.S. illegally to live and work without punishment.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has been under scrutiny since its creation in 2012 by members of the GOP. For weeks, President Trump has been deciding whether to continue the program or face legal reprimand from several Republican attorney generals who deem the program unconstitutional.

A decision is expected to come as early as today—four days before the September 5 deadline set by the attorney generals. If Trump opts to terminate the program, he will let active DACA cardholders remain in the U.S. until their work permits expire, allowing him to fulfill his campaign promise to terminate Obama’s signature initiative while also keeping his inauguration pledge to “show great heart” to the young immigrants in the program.

In Baltimore, Mayor Catherine Pugh and Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz have joined more than 100 civic leaders across the country in a Cities for Action campaign calling for President Trump to continue the program until a legislative solution is found.

“In Baltimore County, we are embracing the children who came here as youngsters, grew up as Americans, and are now contributing to the American dream,” Kamenetz said in a letter to the president. “We urge the President to continue our country’s support of America’s Dreamers.”

A September 2016 report by the Migration Policy Institute recorded approximately 17,000 DACA participants in Maryland. Catalina Rodriguez-Lima, director of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs (MIMA), says that there are currently 34,000 eligible DACA applicants waiting for entry to the program if it is not terminated.

“Our role in the mayor’s office is to use her platform to urge the president to continue DACA,” she said. “For us, it doesn’t only go against our most resilient professionals and students, it’s also an attack on our economy. A lot of these people have bought homes, go to school, are nurses, are lawyers, are business owners—they create jobs.”

All current participants of DACA have already been subjected to extensive background checks and pay income taxes. Without them, the economy would lose more than $460 billion from the national GDP and more than $24 billion from Social Security and Medicare contributions.

Hundreds of national business leaders—including Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and nearly 400 other companies—have also signed an open letter to Trump calling for him to preserve the program.

“Unless we act now to preserve the DACA program, all 780,000 hardworking young people will lose their ability to work legally in this country, and every one of them will be at immediate risk of deportation,” the executives wrote. “With them, we grow and create jobs. They are part of why we will continue to have a global competitive advantage.”

“Trump must end DACA,” wrote the editors of the National Review. “If we are going to amnesty an entire class of people, it should obviously be done through the democratic process and, in our view, happen only in exchange for reforms to the immigration system. DACA contravenes the elementary principle that the legislative branch ought to pass laws and the executive branch ought to enforce them.”

As the country awaits the president’s decision, Rodriguez-Lima and MIMA are encouraging local DACA cardholders to be proactive in the event that the program is suspended. She recommends applying for other immigration release programs besides DACA and consulting with legal professionals.

“My hope is that if the program is terminated, congress can come together to develop a solution for these students who were brought to this country not knowing they were undocumented,” she said. “They shouldn’t be punished but accepted. The U.S. is the only home they’ve ever known.”

Source

Poll: Hogan’s Approval Rating Up To 58%

Ron Cassie — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 12:41:00 +0000

Gov. Larry Hogan’s job approval rating has taken a significant leap in the past seven months.

Eight months into his term, 58 percent of Maryland residents approve of the way Hogan—a Republican in a blue state—is handling his work in Annapolis; 18 percent disapprove; and 23 percent don’t know, according to a new poll from Goucher College.

In Goucher’s February poll, Maryland residents were understandably more hesitant to judge Hogan’s performance—he’d only been in office for a month. At that time, 39 percent indicated they approved of the job he was doing; 17 percent disapproved; and 43 percent did not offer an opinion.

Marylanders are also more optimistic about the direction that the state is heading than they were a year ago. A majority, 56 percent, now believes the state is moving in the right direction, compared to the 38 percent found in Goucher’s September 2014 poll.

It’s interesting to note that while those polled are more optimistic about the state’s future, there wasn’t a great difference between those who said their personal financial situation had improved (29 percent) in the past year and those who said it had worsened (22 percent). Almost exactly half, 49 percent, said their personal economic situation had remained the same. However, when asked to speculate about their personal economic situation a year from now, 47 percent said they expect it to improve; 11 percent expect it to worsen; and 39 percent expect it to stay about the same.

“In the eyes of many Marylanders, Gov. Larry Hogan is off to a good start leading the state,” said Mileah Kromer, director of the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center at Goucher College, in a statement. “What is notable is that his support crosses party lines. Along with his 80 percent approval rating among his fellow Republicans, 54 percent of Democrats approve of the job he’s doing. A tough test of his leadership ability will come this spring, when he has to work with the heavily Democratic legislature to address important statewide issues like education, public transportation, and budgetary policy.”

Regarding the most important issue facing the state, Maryland residents chose education (15 percent); taxes (14 percent); economic growth and development (13 percent); and jobs and unemployment (11 percent).

Support for Hogan does not appear to indicate any sharp right turn, politically, in the state: Marylanders also continue to approve of President Barack Obama’s work in the White House. His job approval rating (53 percent) among Marylanders during his second term in office remains virtually unchanged since last fall. Thirty-eight percent of Marylanders disapprove of Obama’s performance while a whopping 83 percent disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job.

Other numbers from the Goucher Poll:

Marijuana: 52 of Maryland residents support the legalization of marijuana, 42 percent oppose it.

Immigration: 62 percent of Maryland residents believe undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay in their jobs and eventually apply for U.S. citizenship; 13 percent think undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay in their jobs as temporary guest workers, but not be allowed to apply for U.S. citizenship; 20 percent believe undocumented immigrants should be required to leave their jobs and leave the United States.

*The Goucher poll notes that although 73 percent of Marylanders believe that the number of undocumented immigrants coming to the U.S. has increased in the past decade, the Pew Research Center, based on Census population estimates, says that the number has remained flat since 2005.

School Start Date: 72 percent support moving the official start date to after Labor Day; 19 percent oppose.

Voting Districts: 21 percent prefer a system where voting district lines are determined by Maryland’s elected officials and 73 percent prefer a system where districts are determined by an independent commission. Currently, voting district lines in Maryland are determined by the state’s elected officials and are readjusted after each U.S. Census.

Conducted from Sept. 26 – 30, the Goucher Poll of 636 Maryland residents includes a probable 3.9 percent plus/minus sampling error from the actual population distribution for any given survey question.

Source

undocumented immigrants – Baltimore Magazine

Local Leaders Call on Trump to Protect “Dreamers”

​Poll: Hogan’s Approval Rating Up To 58%

Poll: Hogan’s Approval Rating Up To 58%