COLLEGE PARK Maryland might want to consider opting out of a controversial program to identify and deport illegal immigrants who also commit crimes, according to a state assistant public defender.

The Secure Communities program a collaboration between the FBI and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency increasingly targets immigrants with misdemeanors or no criminal convictions, defying the law’s intent, said Lisa Marquardt, an assistant public defender in the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.

“It’s heart-wrenching. [For] many of these cases, because they can’t afford an immigration attorney, deportation is almost a certainty,” she said.

Since 2008, more than 101,000 people have been deported through the program in Maryland. Of those, 26,473 had committed serious crimes, 45,970 had misdemeanor crimes on their record and 29,296 had no criminal convictions, Marquardt said.

Marquardt spoke Monday to the state’s Commission to Study the Impact of Immigrants in Maryland, discussing the effects of Secure Communities and other immigration law enforcement programs on her department.

The program and increased enforcement through the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows local police agencies to perform immigration-related law enforcement tasks, have upped her caseload and overcrowded detention facilities across the state, she said.

Most of the 13 immigration attorneys in Marquardt’s office handle between 80 and 100 cases annually, and in roughly 80 percent of cases where deportation is an option of legal recourse, the defendant ends up forced from the country, she said.

In addition to opting out of the Secure Communities program, the state also could consider expanding the public defender’s office or using the governor’s clemency power to grant pardons for legal permanent residents who had committed minor crimes, Marquardt said.

Minnesota, Washington state, Illinois and New York already have opted out of Secure Communities, and California and Massachusetts are re-evaluating their participation, she said.

“Once word gets around that we have the immigration program in the public defender’s office, there’s just a desperate need for representation in these cases,” Marquardt said.

Del. Patrick L. McDonough (R-Dist. 7) of Middle River also spoke to the commission Monday about the role he thinks the General Assembly needs to take in addressing immigration issues.

The commission was established in 2008 and its members include immigration lawyers, academics and lawmakers.

McDonough said he did not initially support the commission because he did not think it was adequately taking on illegal immigration, one of his chief campaign and policy issues.

Other states, where laws punish businesses for employing undocumented workers, are driving illegal immigrants to Maryland, McDonough said.

“People go where they feel comfortable,” he said. “Maryland is becoming the Disneyland of America for illegal immigrants. We provide free rides and attractions and benefits.”

Recently, McDonough and other Republican leaders have championed a petition to bring the Maryland Dream Act a law that grants in-state tuition to children of illegal immigrants to referendum.

Petition organizers have collected more than 100,000 signatures supporting the referendum, McDonough said. They will need to turn in more than 55,000 valid names by the end of the month to get the measure on the 2012 general election ballot.

Commission leaders said their recommendations to the state won’t be available until later in the year, but their final report will focus on the economical, fiscal and law enforcement effects of immigration in Maryland.

sbreitenbach@gazette.net