By Georgina Brennan

SENATOR John McCain (R-Arizona) had two clear messages for the Irish fighting for immigration reform this week. “The Irish are the key to this issue. You have tremendous power and if anyone can do it, the Irish can do it,” McCain, told the Irish Voice in an exclusive interview.

McCain also stated that he was immensely proud of his Irish roots and that helping Irish undocumented as part of his immigration bill co-sponsored with Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) would be a source of great satisfaction to him.

McCain, in New York for an immigration reform rally at Manhattan’s Building Service Workers Union Local 32, also told the Irish Voice that he believed major changes would be needed in the bill offered last week by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and that he would fight hard to change it.

“I promise you I won’t quit,” he told an undocumented Irish girl at the rally when she thanked him for his support on the issue.

Admitting that the debate was difficult, McCain said that there was real power in the Irish presence in the debate and the support they had garnered in the Senate Judiciary Committee. “We are talking about one of the most fundamental challenges in American life, and in many respects one of the most difficult challenges we face. I don’t know how this is going to play out,” he said.

“There is an interesting array of support for this. The Irish have a long history in Washington. If anyone can do it the Irish can do it, but they have to be heard. There is already close to majority support of McCain/Kennedy in the Judiciary Committee. We have to work through the problems we have.

“I think what’s non-negotiable is sending (undocumented) back. Someone is going to have to explain to me how to round them up and deport them.”

During a private reception earlier in the evening, as McCain prepared to address the multiethnic rally in support of his legislation in the union hall’s main auditorium, he took some time out to talk to several ILIR volunteers.

“He told us we were key to this, ‘You have the power,’ he told us,” said undocumented volunteer Sam.

To Mary, another undocumented resident, McCain said in earnest, “I will not quit on this.”

At the boisterous rally McCain listened to immigrants, including a New York City budget analyst from Congo whose parents died and left her without status, a college valedictorian from Guatemala, and plumber Brian from Ireland as they put a human face on the issue of illegal immigration.

“I came to America when I was 22. I came to my uncles,” said Brian. “I started my own business a year ago. I share my own house with my new wife Caroline and our two dogs.

“I would like children to be a part of that, but as the law stands they would never get to see their grandparents. This system is broken and I don’t want to see my American dream come crashing down,” he told the audience.

In the interview with Irish Voice and in his remarks McCain did not minimize the difficulties that his bill with Kennedy faces.

“(Arlen Specter’s bill) is very complex. I don’t think it’s workable in its present form. I don’t think it’s a workable solution,” he said.

Rather than creating a path to citizenship for the undocumented, Specter’s legislation provides special immigrant worker visas. Specter’s bill marks what will open the discussion.

Insisting that there was still much to be discussed in the coming weeks, McCain said his legislation was in play and that he was confident about the chances of fixing a broken system.

“The president shares my concerns. I’ve spoken to (him) many times on this issue. He addressed it in his State of the Union address and outlined his ideas about a guest worker program,” McCain said.

“I appreciate his involvement and commitment on the issue. I’m for earned citizenship. I’m opposed to amnesty. We had an amnesty in the 1980s and it didn’t fix the illegal immigration problem. I’m confident (the McCain Kennedy legislation) would stop people coming here illegally if they knew they could not get a job unless they has a tamper proof visa.”

McCain, who has made no secret of his intention to possibly run for president in 2008, was in New York as part of his countrywide tour to rally support for his immigration bill.

“I believe this bill will transform America. I believe we will have an orderly way to resolve the status of 11 million people who are without the protections of our laws in our society. This is an orderly way for people to come to this country, work and feed their families, and go back to their home country,” he said.

McCain described hundreds of undocumented immigrants literally dying to get into this country to become part of the American dream. The first debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee is set for Thursday.

The House passed an immigration enforcement bill in December sponsored by Congressman James Sensenbrenner that criminalized anyone who helped someone who is undocumented as well as the undocumented.

It also called for fences along the Mexican border, empowered local cops to enforce immigration laws and encouraged all employers to police their own business by asking for proof of status.

Under the McCain/Kennedy sponsored legislation, employers who hire illegal workers would be penalized, undocumented immigrants in the U.S. would have to pay a $1,000 fine, go through a background check, learn English, work six years until eligible to apply for citizenship, and it would take another five years to get a green card, McCain said.

The bill would also create what he called a tamper-proof visa for immigrants to come to America to work.

Understanding that to fix the immigration system, the border needs to be enforced, McCain was clear that was not up for discussion.

“Our borders are broken because people are coming across the border to feed themselves and their families and to get jobs because they can’t do that where they come from. If they could not get a job unless they had this tamper-proof visa, and they knew that employers would be penalized for hiring them without a legal guest worker visa then that would dry up. I am confident they would not come across the border,” he said.

McCain explained that the problem had already led to the development of the Minuteman Project, an armed citizen border patrol.

“I understand why we have Minutemen. They see our wildlife refuges being destroyed. They see hundreds of millions of dollars of uncompensated health care costs. They see law enforcement costs. They are a symptom of the frustration of the illegal immigration problem. I understand their frustration. I just don’t agree with their approach to the problem.”

McCain was joined on stage by several Democratic lawmakers, including House Representatives Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velasquez, Anthony Weiner and Charles Rangel.