Clinton/Kennedy to Headline Rally

By April Drew

SENATORS Hillary Clinton and Edward Kennedy will headline the speaker’s list at the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) rally in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, March 7.

Also speaking will be Senator Chuck Schumer, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, a member of the Bush cabinet, and Senator Chuck Hagel, a key figure in the Republican Party.

In addition, speakers from La Raza, the Hispanic lobby, and the CIRNOW, the umbrella immigration group, are also expected to appear at the rally.

Up to a dozen House members are also expected to attend. ILIR members will meet with key representatives during the day, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s senior staff and possibly the speaker herself.

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, chairman of the all-important Immigration sub committee in the House, will also meet with an ILIR delegation led by Chairman Niall O’Dowd.

In addition, several other senators are expected to make their way to the rally site at the Washington Court Hotel on New Jersey Avenue, just a brief distance from Capitol Hill, to show their support for ILIR and the battle for comprehensive immigration reform.

“With the new immigration reform bill expected to come before the Senate Judiciary Committee sometime in the next 10 days, the rally timing seems particularly good for ILIR. We are expecting over 3,000 delegates from all over the U.S. to attend,” said ILIR Executive Director Kelly Fincham. “We are getting an incredible commitment from our membership.”

Fincham pointed out that as most New Yorkers will be pulling their bed sheets tightly around them to ward off the cold early in the morning of March 7, hundreds of undocumented Irish and their supporters will be boarding buses at 4 a.m. in the Bronx, Queens, Rockland and Brooklyn to join the rally day.

Similar scenes will be taking place in Boston and Philadelphia, while in San Francisco over 200 Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform supporters will be taking redeye flights to the nation’s capitol for the rally

This is the third lobby day organized by ILIR in the past year. On March 8, 2006 over 3,000 people joined the organization in an effort to lobby Congress for immigration reform. Another rally was held in June.

“ILIR was told in March that the hunger and passion expressed by the lobbyists changed the minds of many key politicians,” said Fincham.

It was that day, nearly a year ago that put ILIR on the map in the fight for immigration reform. “We changed the minds of at least five senators and it’s our aim this Wednesday to change many more,” Fincham added.

Organizers of this year’ event believe that there is a 50% chance that an immigration reform bill will come out of the Senate and the House, and that legislation will be created which will provide legal status for an estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish in the U.S.

As buses are expected to roll back to New York about 10 p.m. Wednesday evening, there is no doubt that several ILIR volunteers will be heading to their locals to unwind from what is expected to be a tremendous day on Capitol Hill.

To celebrate the anticipated success of Wednesday’s rally, organizers have booked Donegal’s Mickey Harte, singer and songwriter and 2003 Eurovision song contest representative for Ireland, to perform live at no cover charge in the Heritage Bar on Friday, March 9 to say thanks to the Irish American community for their support.