Enda Kenny: United States must protect illegal Irish

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has insisted the 50,000 illegal Irish in America must be protected from US president Donald Trump’s contentious immigration policies, saying the issue is one of his “absolute priorities” this week.

Speaking in Philadelphia on Saturday night at his first official event of a five-city St Patrick’s Day trade mission, Mr Kenny said while “immigration reform” is a “sensitive” issue, it cannot come at the expense of “hard-working, tax-paying Irish people”.

In an address to the Friendly Sons of St Patrick organisation, — a long-standing Irish-American group which refused to allow women members until just last year — the Taoiseach said Irish people must be protected.