Immigrants protest at Dáil against deportation

THEY came with a sea of push chairs and prams, as unlikely a protest as Leinster House has ever seen.

More than 500 immigrants and asylum seekers who have applied for residency here on the basis of an Irish-born child assembled to call on Justice Minister Michael McDowell not to deport them.

Yesterday was the first public protest involving so many of the 11,000 families living in limbo since January’s Supreme Court ruling that parents of children born here do not have an automatic entitlement to residency. Mr McDowell has yet to decide how to apply the ruling to cases pending when the court decision was reached, although a decision is expected soon.