BALTIMORE, July 8 (UPI) -- Maryland voters will decide if undocumented immigrants should get in-state tuition rates at the state's public colleges, officials say.
They will get that opportunity because opponents gathered enough signatures to suspend a law providing that benefit, forcing a statewide referendum.
It was the first time in two decades a petition drive forced a vote on a Maryland law, The Washington Post reported Friday.
The suspended law allowed undocumented immigrants to attend state colleges at in-state rates if they could prove they attended high school for at least three years in Maryland and that their parents or guardians had started paying taxes.
"The liberal leadership of the General Assembly rammed this through, even with 20 Democrats voting against it," said Republican Delegate Neil C. Parrott, the leader of the petition drive. "It's taken the hard work of volunteers across the state to make sure voters will have the final say."
Election officials must still certify the outcome and court challenges are expected, the report said. Many petition drives fail because the names don't match voter registration records.
A new online tool lets petitioners print out a list of voter names as they are officially registered and helps eliminate signatures that don't match.
"This issue of illegal immigration tapped into a zeitgeist. With the economy, it was ripe to be the first referendum to succeed in 20 years," said Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary's College.
