Senator Mark Daly and President Barack Obama in the White House on St. Patrick’s Day
By Ray O’Hanlon
President-elect Donald Trump has promised a “great” immigration bill.
And while that statement is open to the widest possible interpretation, those Irish living in the shadows and about to spend another Christmas in their very particular form of lockdown will be hoping that any initiative in the part of the 45th president will be literally great for them.
Meantime it’s another Christmas in those shadows - shadows made longer by uncertainty and the passing of years.
This year about to pass marked the 30th anniversary of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, a measure steered into law by another Republican president, Ronald Reagan.
That bill contained an amnesty provision for the undocumented and illegal, but most of the 1980s Irish arrived after the amnesty cutoff date, thus firing up the reform campaign that produced the Donnelly, Berman and Morrison visa programs.
It’s a long time since the undocumented Irish have had a program in their collective Christmas stocking to look forward to.
Too long as Fianna Fáil spokesperson on the Irish Overseas and Diaspora, Senator Mark Daly, is concerned.
Daly, in a statement, said that a new sense of urgency was needed from the Irish government as 50,000 Undocumented Irish were once again spending Christmas while living in fear of deportation.
“A new president has been elected, a new administration is being put together, and a new Congress will be sworn in come January,” said Daly.
“The Irish government must increase its outreach to the hundreds of new members of the House of Representatives, new senators, and new members of the Trump cabinet.
“Irish people living in America cannot go through another Christmas of worry and fear.
“This issue does not just affect the undocumented; it also affects their parents, siblings and other family members.
“We estimate that approximately 500,000 people in Ireland are affected by the lack of progress on immigration reform in the United States,” said Daly, who is the chair of the Ireland America Association.
