Irish Gov’t to Debate Undocumented

By Georgina Brennan

Following recent stories about many Irish undocumented in the U.S. being unable to return home or become legal, a major debate will take place in the Dail (Irish Parliament) on the issue.

On Thursday, October 6, a draft motion by Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern which supports the Kennedy/ McCain bill on immigration reform will be discussed in the Dail.

Ahern said the Kennedy/McCain Bill, if passed by the Congress, would allow undocumented people, including Irish, in the U.S. to apply for temporary residency status with a possible path to permanent residency here.

“This is an issue we are concerned about, there are, we estimate, about 25,000 undocumented Irish (in America),” Ahern said in a recent interview on the top rated radio program Morning Ireland.

“Some people say there’s only 5,000 the Americans say there’s only 5,000. The Irish emigrant centers would say there’s about 50,000.

“The Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern) and myself raised this with President Bush back on the 17th of March when we visited the White House in relation to, particularly in the post September 11situation. There are families in Ireland, if they have a bereavement, a wedding or whatever, if a relative is sick, their loved ones in America can’t come back over to Ireland because of the fear that they may not be able to get back into America because they are undocumented.

“We’ve raised this issue in order to try to regularize their position. There are a number of bills being postulated and proposed in America to try to redress this issue.”

Ahern went on to explain that the reason the Irish government must get behind American immigration reform is because the lobbyists and the politicians all say without an international pressure, the bills are in danger of not getting passed.

“A parliamentary delegation was over in Washington and they met with John McCain who’s the promoter of a bill as well as Ted Kennedy. They asked John McCain what could the Oireachtas (Irish legislature ) do?,” Ahern said.

“He said if we could pass an all party motion it would help, so the government are making time available. I’m promoting a bill next week supporting the McCain/Kennedy bill which hopefully, ultimately the bones of which will be adopted.”

Ahern stressed it was important for all Irish people to get behind the bills.

“We know about the plight of the undocumented Irish in the United States. An all-party Dail motion would voice the support of the Irish people, through their elected representatives, for the positive approach to this important issue proposed by Senator Kennedy and Senator McCain.”