![[photo, 100 Community Place, Crownsville, Maryland]](/msa/mdmanual/08conoff/images/buildings/1198-1-07707b.jpg)
Kamal Essaheb, Esq., Senior Advisor & Director of Immigrant Affairs
100 Community Place
Crownsville, MD 21032
(410) 697-9277
e-mail: kamal.essaheb@maryland.gov"
web: https://goci.maryland.gov/immigrant/
100 Community Place, Crownsville, Maryland, July 2016. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.
Annual Report of Maryland Language Advisory Group to General Assembly due June 1 (Chapter 434, Acts of 2025).
Interim Report of Maryland Immigrant Rights Protection Task Force to Governor due July 15, 2026.
Final Report of Maryland Immigrant Rights Protection Task Force to Governor due May 31, 2027.
In October 2021, the Governor's Office of Immigrant Affairs was authorized by the General Assembly (Chapter 675, Acts of 2021; Code State Government Article, secs. 9–3301 through 9–3304).
The charge of the Office is to establish a network of neighborhood-based opportunity centers that provide immigration services. It will assist immigrants in matters relating to immigration status, including assistance with the naturalization process, and applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). It also will work to increase access to English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs by engaging nonprofit organizations and other program providers.
Through the Office, immigrants will be connected to business resources that use immigrant skills; employment referral programs; and other workforce development programs. The Office also is to develop and leverage immigrants’ skills to benefit immigrant communities and the State; strengthen the connection between immigrants and the immigrants’ communities through civic engagement; and reduce exploitation of immigrants.
The head of the Office is the Director, who is appointed by the Governor.
Assisting the Governor's Office of Immigrant Affairs are the Maryland Immigrant Rights Protection Task Force, and the Maryland Language Advisory Group.
Ex officio: Yaakov (Jake) Weissmann, Esq., Secretary of Budget & Management; Jacob R. Day, Secretary of Housing & Community Development; Portia Y. Wu, Esq., Secretary of Labor; Walter L. Simmons, Secretary of Social & Economic Mobility; Rev. Lawrence E. Walker, Sr., Executive Director, Governor's Office of Community Initiatives; Dorothy J. Lennig, Esq., Executive Director, Governor's Office of Crime Prevention & Policy; Cleveland L. Horton II, Executive Director, Commission on Civil Rights.
In June 2026, the Governor authorized the Maryland Immigrant Rights Protection Task Force to address fraud and exploitation of immigrant Marylanders (Executive Order 01.01.2026.11).
in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Comptroller), the Task force is administered by the Governor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.
The Task Force charge is to engage stakeholders to assess common barriers and challenges that
immigrant Marylanders face in securing their rights under State and local law in the workplace, as consumers, tenants, and taxpayers, and as victims and witnesses of crime. Further, the Task Force will identify and recommend strategies to strengthen:
MARYLAND LANGUAGE ADVISORY GROUP
By law effective October 2025, the General Assembly requires that the Governor's Office of Immigrant Affairs and the Department of Disabilities convene the Maryland Language Advisory Group by January 1, 2026 (Chapter 434, Acts of 2025)
Search the Manual
e-mail: mdmanual@maryland.gov
|
|| Search the Archives || Education & Outreach || Archives of Maryland Online ] Governor General Assembly Judiciary Maryland.Gov
|