Catholic Review
Maryland legislators increase BOOST funding, pass bills expanding prenatal care grants and giving pandemic relief
April 14, 2021
In a packed last few days of the 2021 session of the Maryland General Assembly, legislators increased funding for the BOOST (Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today) scholarship program and approved several types of support related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Legislators also expanded a grant program for prenatal and infant care, passed measures intended to reform policing and approved a bill to get state and local governments out of the business of housing immigrants for the federal government.
After the session ended just before midnight April 12, the Maryland Catholic Conference staff was reviewing the details of dozens of bills that were wrapped up in the final hours of the session. Jenny Kraska, the MCC’s executive director, said she was pleased with some aspects of the session.
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From January 2017 onward, as Donald Trump expanded his harsh anti-immigrant policies, private prison companies rushed into what they saw as an open market. Many signed contracts either directly with ICE or with local and state governments that ICE had contracted with for new holding facilities for undocumented immigrants. In state after state, requests for proposals went out, soliciting bids from companies such as Immigration Centers of America (ICA) to build new privately run immigration detention sites.
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