Government doing its best for illegal Irish
We are in particular grateful to Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern, whose staff, including the Irish Abroad Unit, have travelled to the US several times this past year to lobby for the Kennedy McCain bill aimed at granting legal status to immigrants.
On March 16, Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan attended a briefing on immigrant matters in Boston and listened to the challenges facing the undocumented Irish.
However, three days after our meeting with Mr Brennan, we were distressed to see an article in an Irish Sunday newspaper which suggested undocumented Irish in the US are supporting the Ku Klux Klan and the IRA, and are ‘rats’.
At the Irish Pastoral Center in Massachusetts, we assist undocumented Irish immigrants. We see immigrants who are exploited in the workplace, living in fear of reporting crimes committed upon them, and unable to go home to bury parents and loved ones.
We see young men from Ireland work long hours for comparably low pay; we’ve had young women sexually assaulted in the workplace, too afraid to report the harassment to authorities because of their immigration status.
Many of the undocumented are living in great stress, depressed about their lack of status.
A large percentage of the Irish have been here for years and have established strong roots in their communities. Many have homes and business, and their children are in school. Going ‘home’ is not an option for the majority, because returning to Ireland means they’ll be barred from coming back to the US for 10 years.
We look forward to the reform of US immigration laws to allow hardworking, tax-paying immigrants a chance to adjust their status here.
Sr Marguerite Kelly
Executive DirectorFr John McCarthy
Chaplain
Irish Pastoral Center
953 Hancock St
Quincy
Massachusetts 02170
US
