Ana Sol Gutierrez (born January 11, 1942) is a Democratic

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

from the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

who was the first Latina to ever be elected to the

Maryland General Assembly The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives and the lower chamb ...

. She served four terms in the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the legislature of the State of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis, ...

, representing Montgomery County in Maryland's District 18. Gutierrez sat on the Appropriations Committee and was chair of the Delinquency Prevention and Diversion Services Task Force beginning in 2006. In 2003, Gutierrez was the first Latina elected to state office. In 2016, Gutierrez ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in Maryland's 8th Congressional District, ultimately being defeated by

Jamie Raskin Jamin Ben Raskin (born December 13, 1962) is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Maryland's 8th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the Maryland State Senate fr ...

Background

Gutierrez was born in

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

and attended

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (B-CC) is a public high school in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is named for two of the towns it serves; it also serves Kensington and Silver Spring. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda. In May ...

before moving on to

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

, garnering a B.S. in chemistry and earned an M.S. in technology of management, scientific & technical information systems from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

. She did her postgraduate studies in

applied engineering Applied Engineering, headquartered in Carrollton, TX, was a leading third-party hardware vendor for the Apple II series of computers from the early 1980s until the mid-1990s. History {{original research, section, date=September 2018 In its day ...

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

. Gutierrez has served in all three levels of government. As a deputy administrator in the Transportation Department during the Clinton Administration, on the Montgomery County School Board, and as a Delegate for the 18th District.

Notable positions held

* Member, Board of Education, Montgomery County, 1990–98 (president, 1995–96; vice-president, 1994–95). * Member, Governor's Commission on Hispanic Affairs, 1989–91, 1992–94. * Deputy Administrator, Research and Special Programs Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1994–96. * Member, Task Force to Study Driver Licensing Documentation, 2003–04.

Drivers' licenses for undocumented immigrants

Ana Sol Gutierrez is strongly allied with

CASA of Maryland CASA (formerly ''CASA of Maryland'') is a Latino and immigration advocacy-and-assistance organization based in Maryland. It is active throughout the state, but has major foci in Prince George's County, Montgomery County and Baltimore. CASA infl ...

in support of a system whereby the default Maryland Driving Permit will not conform to the standards mandated by the Real ID Act, and may be issued to

undocumented immigrants Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwar ...

. She favors the issuance of a special ID which will conform to federal standards which would allow the bearer to enter federal buildings, board planes, and engage in other transactions which require identity cards conforming to the standards set out in the Real ID Act of 2005. She opposes a two-tier licensing system which would issue driving permits to undocumented immigrants, but which would not conform to the Real ID standards which would be the default for Maryland driving permits issued to qualified Marylanders, because " this climate, that's a scarlet letter". Governor

Martin O'Malley Martin Joseph O'Malley (born January 18, 1963) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as the 61st Governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was Mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007. O'Malley ...

later directed the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration to phase in compliance to the Real ID standards by 2010.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gutierrez, Ana Sol 1942 births Salvadoran emigrants to the United States American University alumni American politicians of Salvadoran descent Eberly College of Science alumni George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Democratic Party members of the Maryland House of Delegates Women state legislators in Maryland Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Maryland Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Living people 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Sol family