By Georgina Brennan

A delegation of Irish politicians are due in New York next Monday to discuss the plight of Irish immigrants in the U.S. and the moves for comprehensive immigration reform.

The Irish Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs will be visiting New York and Washington and are particularly interested in meeting with those in the community who are providing support services to Irish immigrants.

Dr. Michael Woods, Bernard Allen, Senator Paschal Mooney, Senator Paul Bradford, Senator Mary Rourke, policy advisor Dermot O’ Mahony and Sean Farrell of the Irish Abroad Unit will be at the New York Irish Centre in Queens to talk about the issues affecting the Irish abroad.

Recently Irish politicians have been getting numerous calls from Irish parents concerned about their sons and daughters stuck in the U.S. illegally.

Meanwhile, another Irish politician has spoken out forcefully of the need to get reform through Congress.

Fine Gael politician Michael Ring, who recently visited the U.S. on a fact finding mission, says he comes across many stories, both in Ireland and the U.S., about the negative impact of the tightened security situation after September 11.

“An elderly woman called to my constituency office in Westport. She was 79-years-old living alone and in poor heath and her husband had only recently died,” he said.

“This elderly woman told me that her only son is married in America and has not visited her in several years. He cannot travel to Ireland because he is an illegal immigrant in the United States and she is not sufficiently healthy to make the long journey across the Atlantic.

“She desperately wants to see him and she worries every day and night that she will die without meeting her grandchildren and daughter-in-law. Her son was not able to come home for his father’s funeral and now he cannot come home to see his widowed mother. This unfortunate woman’s story brought tears to my eyes,” he explained.