Three Montgomery County residents filed a lawsuit Jan. 20 against Montgomery College’s board of trustees for charging in-county tuition rates to all recent graduates of MCPS high schools, including those who are not legal residents of the U.S.

Judicial Watch, a nonpartisan government watchdog group, is backing the resident who filed the lawsuit.  These residents, Michael Lee Phillips, Patricia Fenati and David Drake, are concerned taxpayers who feel that their money is going towards potentially illegal practices.

“We would like the [college] to stop breaking the law,” said Chris Farrell, director of research for Judicial Watch.  “Taxpayers are being asked to pay the bills of people who are unlawfully present in the U.S.”

Montgomery College has maintained its policy of affording in-county tuition rates to noncitizens who graduate from MCPS high schools for several decades.  According to Farell, auditors have often questioned the policy’s legality, but the issue did not come to the public’s attention until the three residents reviewed the college’s audits.

“The plaintiffs came to me personally and asked for my assistance,” Maryland House of Delegates member Pat McDonough (D-7, Baltimore) said.  “I did a six-month investigation to help them out because their own representatives in Montgomery County refused to help them.”

According to Judicial Watch’s website, Montgomery College has lost almost $6 million from charging in-county tuition rates to students who reside in the U.S. unlawfully.

Farrell is particularly concerned about Montgomery College’s tuition policies because of the U.S.’s current economic situation.

“There are all sorts of government programs that are being shut down,” Farrell said. “Here’s a case where a college is giving up on $6 million. Somebody has to pay that bill.”

According to a Jan. 24 press release by the Montgomery College Board of Trustees, in denoting the college’s tuition policies as illegal, Judicial Watch and its clients are misinterpreting the law.

“There is no law on the books right now that says that Montgomery College cannot do what it is doing,” said Adam Fogel, chief of staff for Maryland State Senator Richard Madaleno (D-18, Kensington). “We believe it is following the law.”

Madaleno and fellow Maryland State Senator Victor Ramirez (D-47, Cheverly) are co-sponsoring the Maryland DREAM Act.

“The primary goal of the DREAM Act is to give the opportunity to students who graduate from Maryland high schools to continue their education,” Fogel said.  “We think it’s important that these be students who are members of our community who we spend money to educate in kindergarten through 12th grade.”

According to Fogel, while the lawsuit against Montgomery College and the DREAM Act are on “completely separate paths,” if the DREAM Act is passed before the lawsuit goes to trial in April, the lawsuit may be nullified.

“I would imagine that if we passed this law and it was signed by the governor, the lawsuit would be moot because then the state law would be explicitly granting all colleges and universities, including community colleges, the right to provide in-state tuition to the students,” Fogel said.

So far, 10 states have passed similar to the DREAM Act.  A similar bill was proposed in Maryland in 2003, but vetoed by then Governor Bob Ehrlich.

McDonough sees the DREAM Act as harmful in that it may encourage more illegal immigrants to come to Maryland.  Regardless of whether illegal students have lived in the U.S. for most of their lives, he does not think that they should receive in-county or in-state tuition.

“They may not have had any control, but their parents did, and their parents made a decision to violate and disrespect federal law,” McDonough said.

According to Fogel, Madaleno sees the DREAM Act as an “issue of basic fairness” for students who cannot control their illegal status.

“We shouldn’t be punishing students for something that is not a fault of their own,” Fogel said.

Yves Gomes, a 2010 Paint Brunch alumnus and current Montgomery College freshman, has been living in the U.S. since he was one-and-half years old, but was born in India and is not a U.S. citizen.

“As far as I know, I was born here because my earliest memories are of the U.S. in MD,” Gomes said.

Because his parents were deported in 2009, Gomes lives with his great-aunt and great-uncle, who are both U.S. citizens. He is a strong supporter of the Maryland DREAM Act.

“They Maryland DREAM Act is not an immigration bill,” Gomes said.  “It’s strictly an education bill. By providing education and making it more accessible for our whole population, it can only be helpful for the state.”

Although DREAM Act advocates argue that it would prove beneficial to noncitizens, McDonough claims that it threatens students who are citizens of Montgomery County and Maryland.

“There are only so many slots or places available for in-state tuition benefits in a higher education system,” McDonough said.  “Every time an illegal immigrant assumes one of these slots, it is then denying that slot to an American. I believe that’s unfair.”

According to Gomes, many people form opinions about illegal immigrants in the U.S. without truly understanding what is going on.

“People think they know what they’re talking about, but they really don’t,” Gomes said. “I worked hard to get where I am now.  I actually did get accepted to the University of Maryland, College Park, and I was going to go there, but I can’t because of my status.  Colleges give their acceptances based on merit, not based on status.  They pick who they want to go to their school.”0.