Friday, August 10, 2007

Bush "committed to illegal Irish"

New York
Many Irish immigrants settle in New York
President Bush is committed to dealing with the issue of illegal Irish immigrants in America, the US consul for Northern Ireland has said.

The failure of recent legislation which would have allowed illegal immigrants who had left the US to return means many are afraid to visit home.

US consul Dean Pittman said the president wanted to resolve the issue.

"People from Ireland have played a tremendous role in building our country," he said.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This article is deeply saddening. When we attended the San Francisco rally months ago, every speaker talked about solidarity between Irish and Mexicans (and other undocumented people). We gave standing ovations to speakers that declared an attack against any immigrant is an attack against the Irish immigrants. And yet, here we are... OUR COMMUNITY is talking about a special legalization as if we deserve it more. With racist raids attacking and terrorizing Latino immigrant communities, with Latino families being the targets of an increasing number of hate crimes, and the media's lies about undocumented immigrants sponging off the US economy portraying only Latinos. The Irish undocumented get swept under the rug. We are not victim to racist attacks, our communities are not being raided, and our images are not flooding the nightly news. Citizens of this country love us and recognize our hard work and contributions... but overlook that of others.

Let us think for ourselves... should the Irish economy not have had its relatively recent economic upswing would we be getting such a welcome? If this were 20 years ago and lots of Irish were still trying to immigrant... would it be the same?

If we want REAL IMMIGRATION REFORM FOR IRISH we want 1. Good future immigration programs; 2. Good immigration policy in the USA that supports a good and strong US economy. Currently, it does not.

Immigration is a difficult and often depressing issue. These laws isolate us from home, threaten every part of our "stability," and sometimes threaten our survival by denying us important services.

But can we really feel good about a legalization while our neighbors live in constant fear of harassment and deportation... simply because they came undocumented from a different country than we did. And, we this get us what we really want, in the end? I think not.

Our hearts were moved by solidarity months ago...

Anonymous said...

"People from Ireland have played a tremendous role in building our country," he said.

All in the name of lip service. His own party is not solving the situation and resorting to fear mongering and bashing the people who are here working hard and making ends meet and living honestly, peacefully and in fear!

These people are already here and already contributing to the economy. And NO SIR they don't use the welfare system! They are quite capable of working hard and make ends meet!

GBA! (God Bless America)

Anonymous said...

I think you're missing the point Eilis...the US consul quoted in the piece is posted in Ireland so which nationality did you expect him to talk about? And what special legalization are you referring to? The only legislation out there at the moment that is going to help ANYONE is the AgJobs bill and that ain't going to help any of the Irish.

Anonymous said...

That's because he needs the troops. How much longer are Americans going to fight this quagmire. Dangle the prospect of a green card, and the illegal Irish will drool...