US immigration bill - Efforts to protect Irish in US crucial

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern is currently on his sixth visit to the United States to meet Irish immigrant groups and lobby American politicians to protect the 25,000 undocumented Irish immigrants.

This is in the light of new legislation being considered by the US Congress. Some of the proposed legislation would be penal. Many of the Irish immigrants have been in the US since the 1980s and they have set roots there, with the result that their deportation would be extremely disruptive.

In an unprecedented move, the Oireachtas voted unanimously last month to endorse the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Bill, which is bipartisan legislation introduced by Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy.