News (Noticias) for Maryland

Federal agents seized 924 illegal immigrants in Maryland in a special crackdown on fugitive and criminal immigrants during fiscal year 2007, officials said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement created the Fugitive Operations Program to track down undocumented immigrants who fail to comply with immigration court rulings or do not appear for immigration hearings, said Ernestine Fobbs, an ICE public affairs officer for Maryland.”*

After the state legislature failed to grant illegal immigrants in-state tuition in last spring’s session, Delegate Victor Ramirez (D-Prince George’s) defended the proposal in a speech on the campus yesterday.

Ramirez is the co-sponsor of a bill that grants students who have spent two years in Maryland high schools in-state tuition regardless of immigration status. The bill passed the House of Delegates in March but was stalled in a Senate subcommittee as the legislative session drew to a close. “*

Catholic Charities is to sign an agreement with three Baltimore medical centers today to develop a new health care center for Hispanics and other immigrants who lack health care coverage.

The center could open early next year in the second floor of the Catholic Charities’ Hispanic Apostolate at 430 S. Broadway in Fells Point, according to the aid group.”*

Catholic Charities signed an agreement Tuesday with three medical centers to provide health care for uninsured Hispanics and other immigrants, a program organizers hope will provide needed services for a vulnerable population as well as help ease pressure on crowded emergency rooms.

The agreement with St. Joseph Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and St. Agnes HealthCare expands upon a mobile clinic that has been treating about 2,000 people a year - a number organizers hope to double in the first year. Volunteer doctors, nurses and others will see patients at a new health center in a heavily Latino neighborhood a few blocks south of Johns Hopkins Hospital.”*

In an attempt to improve an international scouting system widely considered among the worst in Major League Baseball, the Orioles have agreed to an extended lease on a new baseball academy in the Dominican Republic, just east of the island’s capital city of Santo Domingo.

The facility, which is more than half-completed, will be in Boca Chica, between Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macoris, where the Orioles currently run a Spartan operation that basically consists of two barracks and a field for 50 players.

Expected to be up and running by April 1, the new Orioles facility will have two full fields, will house 75 players and includes full lodging, classrooms and a kitchen. It is part of a complex being rented by five other teams.”*

“Maryland is not the most permissive state when it comes to immigration, said immigration expert William Hanna, however it “is probably in the top half of states in the United States that have been more receptive,” to immigrants.

“Some people will obviously be inclined to move to places where they won’t be harassed,” said the University of Maryland, College Park professor.

Maryland has generally been more relaxed about illegal immigration than Virginia. For example, it is one of only nine states that doesn’t check immigration status before issuing a driver’s license. “*

“A public forum last week promoting the inclusion of Latinos into county life, wound up revealing where the barriers still lie.

The event drew about 130 people, including regional Latino advocacy leaders and county government heads.

The forum was hosted by the police department. But an individual familiar with its planning said the intent was not to portray the Latino population as primarily a law-enforcement challenge.”*

“The lone blackboard in the library at Heritage Baptist Church is being filled with the same question and answer over and over again.
“What is the supreme law of the land?” Dixie Miller asks the class of seven Hispanic immigrants as she writes the question on the chalk board.

The students read it aloud, learning through repetition how to speak and write the question in English.”*

“Local Hispanic community and business leaders spoke out Thursday against a U.S. policy that would require them to fire any employees who aren’t in the records of the Social Security Administration.

The policy, implemented by the Department of Homeland Security as part of immigration law enforcement, would put an unfair burden on large and small business alike to police their own employees to prevent undocumented immigration, local opponents of the measure said.”*

“An unprecedented number of Latinos have flocked to Baltimore County in the past few years, making the county’s Latino population the third-largest in the state, according to recent census data.

The growing population — and its unique needs and contributions to the community — will be the subject of a county Police Department-sponsored forum tonight at the Community College of Baltimore County’s Essex campus.

“The county was not always aware how many people from the Hispanic community are part of their population,” said Eduardo D. Hayden, the Hispanic-Latino liaison to the county’s Ethnic Diversity Advisory Council. “I think now its becoming an issue that we don’t have all the resources we need.”"*

“For the University of Maryland, adapting to a growing Hispanic population is already a challenge.

The six-year graduation rate among Hispanic students is lagging behind those of white and Asian students by about 15 percent, university President Dan Mote said in his State of the Campus address this year.

But now, with the number of Hispanic students graduating from Maryland high schools expected to triple by 2014, according to statistics commissioned by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education Board of Regents, the effort to close the achievement gap has taken on new urgency.”

“Lawyer Leon Rodriguez, wearing an authentic guayaera, indicated the sights, sounds and smells at a recent party in a private home in Howard County.

“What you’re seeing here represents the dramatic economic and political growth of the Latino community in our region,” Rodriguez said proudly.

Rodriguez, a Cuban-American who is county attorney for Montgomery County, was one of about 100 elected officials, business people and bureaucrats gathered around the home’s swimming pool, enjoying Cuban salsa music, drinks, and food.”

“The leafy wilds of Howard County are not the first place you’d expect to stumble upon a pachanga Cubana.

But look, listen, taste, smell: The sounds of Cuban salsa soar amid the tall oak trees, the minty mojitos are flowing like water. Among the 100 or so politicos, entrepreneurs, bankers and social service managers gathered yesterday afternoon and evening around the swimming pool, there are more guayaberas than sports coats. They’re feasting on Cuban classics like ropa vieja (beef) and lechon (pork), followed by flan and tres leches, then strong coffee and long cigars — not from Cuba, alas, the puffing men complain in mock dismay, but from Honduras.

Pachanga Howard? Latino middle-class professionals have long since spread beyond the typical Latino neighborhoods in and around Washington. In common with professionals the world over, they like to party and to network. This pachanga — a word that Cubans in particular use to mean “big party” — is supposed to combine both passions of the multi-tasking careerist. Leave your stuffy work inhibitions at home.”

“The turning point for newly elected Frederick County Commissioner Charles Jenkins came at a meeting where many county offices requested increased funding for interpreters, particularly Spanish-speakers. Jenkins asked if those receiving services were legal residents and was told that, for the most part, no one knew.

“That stuck with me,” he said. “I think it’s only fair that if you’re going to ask taxpayers to fund a program that you’re going to benefit from, that you at least be in this country legally.”

Spurred by that conviction, Jenkins has tread into a contentious national conversation, along with other local governments - including Anne Arundel County, Loudoun County, Va., and Hazleton, Pa. - that have passed or attempted to pass laws targeting illegal immigrants. He has proposed a law that would deny county services, including schooling, to immigrants who entered the country illegally. And he says he is willing to take the case to the Supreme Court if necessary.”

“The Hispanic population in Frederick County has more than doubled since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, leading to what one county official believes is an increase in illegal immigration.

While the actual number of illegal immigrants in Frederick County, or even Maryland, is unknown, Frederick County’s Hispanic population jumped from 4,664 in 2000 to 11,537 in 2006, according to the Census Bureau.”

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“She has long had a passion for helping small businesses. Now, Isabel Regina Borkoski is about to hit her stride.

Borkoski is the new executive director of the 273-member Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Montgomery County.”

“Yinauras Martinez, 16, left her native Dominican Republic two years ago for the United States with the hopes of becoming a nurse or a doctor but felt intimidated by the complicated world of financial aid, college applications and scholarships.

Today, the junior at Northwestern Senior High School in Baltimore’s Park Heights neighborhood exudes confidence about her future.

She attended a recent conference a local nonprofit periodically offers to fill a gap in Maryland’s public schools by showing Hispanic children ”” and their parents ”” that college is not only a possible dream, but a preferable one.”

“V-me, Maryland Public Television’s Spanish-language digital channel, has been on the air for less than a week, but a conservative lawmaker is already working to yank it.

Del. Patrick L. McDonough (R-Baltimore County) said he will introduce legislation when the General Assembly reconvenes that would establish a commission to determine what should air on MPT’s three new digital stations.”

“Ramirez’s company, JusNata Spanglish Designs, offers dozens of original silk-screened T-shirts that blend Spanish and English languages, as well as Latino and American cultures.

For instance, one popular shirt reads, “Cubarican.” Another offers a “Definition of a Latina” that begins “Hermosa, Perfecta, Fuerte, Amiga, Loca …,” meaning “Beautiful, Perfect, Strong, Friendly, Crazy … ”

Many shirts, which typically run from $18 to $21, point to ethnic pride: “Chica Columbiana,” “Ecuadorian Estrella” (star), and the word “Chicana” over the Mexican flag. In offering shirts that appeal to the wide range of Spanish-speaking nationalities, Ramirez said she found a niche that wasn’t being filled.”

“Anne Arundel County, the latest Washington area jurisdiction to take a new and public position against illegal immigration, has announced that businesses with county contracts will be required to sign affidavits attesting that they do not employ workers who are in the country illegally.

County contracts have long required businesses to comply with federal law, but aides to County Executive John R. Leopold R — who issued the executive order last week — said the new language will allow the county to more easily cancel contracts with violators.”

“Maryland Public Television launched its first 24-hour digital Spanish channel Monday, but officials said it could take several years before many of the state’s Hispanics can watch it.

The 24th market nationwide to add “V-me” to digital packages, state officials touted the network as a fresh alternative to traditional Spanish television with everything from early morning yoga tutorials to a Spanish version of “Sesame Street.””

“Many of the campers at El Campo del Bosque or The Camp in the Woods dont know any Spanish, but they learn through pictures, animated presentations and typical camp activities such as skits, arts and crafts and hikes. The children also swam, crabbed, canoed and seined during the weeklong camp, which cost $225.

The counselors are county Spanish teachers who spoke almost entirely in Spanish except when they taught water safety.”

“Just off Alternate Route 40 on the Golden Mile in Frederick, Metro Market 2 is the first Latino-owned business in Frederick County to secure a loan from the Latino Economic Development Corp. of Wheaton, for an expansion. It will likely be followed by a wave of other immigrant-owned businesses seeking help to expand after securing steady business, say officials of the economic development group.

Metro Market’s owner, Mercedes Chaparro, recently obtained a $30,000 loan from the group to help with the roughly $80,000 startup cost of Don Chicken carryout, because it had a history of successful management. Chaparro took over the store from her sister in 2001 and has doubled its size; Don Chicken restaurant will be her second expansion.”