ANNAPOLIS — Fliers proclaiming House Judiciary Chairman Joseph F. Vallario Jr. as ‘‘wanted for aiding and abetting” illegal immigration were removed from a Tuesday evening hearing after he took offense.
The fliers, which depict Vallario wearing an ornate, Mexican-style sombrero, were denounced as racist by one legislator, but others defended them as legitimate free speech.
Del. Victor R. Ramirez, a committee member who was born in El Salvador, said the flier was ‘‘blatant racism.”
‘‘I’m hurt that people would resort to this type of action rather than talk about the issues like grownups,” said Ramirez (D-Dist. 47) of Mount Rainier. ‘‘The true colors of some of the bills’ proponents came out [Tuesday].”
Vallario (D-Dist. 27) of Upper Marlboro brushed off the episode a day later but was visibly angry during Tuesday’s hearing about several immigration-related bills. After ordering the fliers removed, Vallario chided Dels. Warren E. Miller and Patrick L. McDonough, telling them they were fortunate he was even hearing their immigration-related legislation.
‘‘We don’t accept literature that tries to intimidate or harass people,” said Vallario, who is of Italian heritage, in an interview Wednesday.
But Miller and McDonough, who both sponsored bills to prohibit ‘‘sanctuary city” policies that bar local government employees and police officers from asking someone’s immigration status, said they had nothing to do with the flier.
Susan Payne, a Montgomery County resident and executive director of the Maryland Coalition for Immigration Reform, submitted the fliers along with written testimony.
Payne said the poster was ‘‘tongue-in-cheek” political humor.
