Luminus Testifies in Support of Howard County Legislation
Good evening, members of the Council. My name is Tina Horn, and I am the chief external affairs officer of the Luminus Network, a 45-year-old nonprofit Howard County institution that provides immigration legal services to our county’s and our region’s immigrant and refugee populations. For 25 years, I’ve had the profound privilege of living, serving, and working right here in Howard County, and I’m here tonight because this community, and the people who dream of calling it home, are deeply important.
There are sound economic reasons to vote to protect our immigrant neighbors. Immigrants represent 17% of Maryland’s population, but more than 21% of our workforce. About 30% of entrepreneurs in Maryland are immigrants, fueling new businesses and creativity, which means new jobs. Almost 25% of registered nurses and 45% of health aids in Maryland are immigrants, which means decent compassionate care for our families and our seniors. All the men who perished in the collapse of the Key Bridge, may they rest in peace, were immigrants. In 2022, immigrants in Maryland paid $5.3 billion in state and local taxes and contributed more than $6 billion to Social Security and Medicaid. They have almost $37 billion in spending power across the state. We want to attract that spending power to Howard County.
Tonight, I am honored to speak on behalf of the thousands of immigrants and refugees we have served at Luminus, individuals who come to our community, some at great risk, from over 90 nations seeking safety, opportunity, the chance to build a better life for themselves and their children, and a place to belong. Those same things that all of us want. But I also speak as a member of this community who believes, with all my heart, that our greatness must be measured by how we treat one another.
One in 15 families across the country is mixed immigration status. Mom has her green card, and the kids are US citizens, or Dad has asylum, and the kids have green cards, and maybe the youngest has citizenship, the examples vary widely. We must assume there are more than 1 in 15 families in that situation here in Howard County. Some of these immigrant families, our neighbors, are living in fear in Howard County tonight because the children don’t know if their Papi is going to be stolen away from them and deported. If tia or primo will be there when they get home from school. How are these panicked children supposed to succeed in school? Some families are afraid to pick up their kids from school and are asking others to do that for them because they’re terrified to leave their homes. That’s no way to live. Luminus and several of our partners are working on Standby Guardianship to help immigrant parents who fear being detained to designate who would care for their children in the event of an adverse immigration event. Isn’t that a horrible thing to have to think about? Can any of us nonimmigrants imagine having to think about that when our babies were little?
The legislation you’re considering tonight helps to protect my neighbors, your neighbors, our neighbors. Roughly 22.8% of our neighbors, nearly a quarter of us here in Howard County, are foreign-born, according to the US Census. Further, according to HCPSS, we open our doors to students from around the world, representing 187 languages and 147 home countries. Nearly 3 in 10 of us, 28.3%, speak a language other than English in our homes. Truly Howard County is a literal global crossroads. We see this in our community, don’t we? We’re halfway through Black Lives Matter at School week of action. This Saturday we are joining the Lunar New Year celebration at the Mall in Columbia. This month is Black History Month. Ramadan starts in just a few weeks, and then Eid will be here, and Lent and Passover and Easter and Holi. This summer, we will join in and celebrate at the Caribbean American Heritage festival and the Fourth of July parades. This fall, we will attend Pride and Hispanic Heritage Month events, and Diwali, and there’s more that I haven’t mentioned. This richness, this liveliness, this joy, this is the stuff of life, and we have it here because our neighbors are here and they feel safe.
You can cast your vote for hope. You can take this concrete step to build a community that lives up to its ideals, that walks its talk. You can vote to say, “we want you here” and “you belong.” You can vote to say bring your dances, your food, your songs, your stories, your children, and your laughter here. You can vote to say come raise your children with my children or my grandchildren, who are the children of all of us.