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Backers give wary welcome to proposals

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

However, former Rep. Bruce Morrison warned that expectation of any firm changes in the law this year would be premature.
“There is good news for the Irish in that what President Bush spoke about was not nationality specific,” Morrison said. “But the Irish will have to be organized to take advantage of whatever eventually comes out of this.”
Morrison said he did not believe that any immigration bill would be passed into law in a presidential election year, though there would be “a lot of talk” on the issue.
“If Bush is reelected he will have a hard time running away from this, and if a Democrat is elected he will have promised more. So 2005 would be the big year,” said Morrison, who, as a congressman, crafted the Morrison visa lottery.
Morrison said that Bush had been “very smart” in not being too specific in his speech.
“He was inoculating himself against charges that he was delivering an amnesty,” Morrison said.
Morrison said that in any reform bill that eventually emerged he would expect to see a much more serious application of workplace enforcement of laws preventing the hiring of illegals.
Because of this, Morrison said he believed that it would be especially important for the Irish to draw up of what he called “a workable legal immigration regime.”
“That would be where you could apply for legal status while here under the visa waiver program,” he said.
Tom Conaghan, director of the Philadelphia Irish Immigration and Pastoral Center, said he welcomed the Bush speech.
Conaghan said that how the Irish eventually benefited from any changes in the law would depend of the ability of the Irish-American community to raise the issues that concerned it collectively.
Conaghan said that the thorny issue of “bars of excludability” would have to be addressed in any upcoming reform debate.
Under these rules, which came into force with the 1996 immigration reform act, an undocumented immigrant can be excluded from the U.S. for three or 10 years, depending on how long the individual overstayed in the country.
The Irish could not “border hop” like many immigrants from Central and South America, Conaghan said.
They had to “swim the Atlantic” before being inspected at the border each and every time they left the U.S. and returned, Conaghan, who is also president of the Federation of Irish American Societies in the Delaware Valley, added.
“The federation will be actively involved in making sure the Irish get their fair share,” he said.
Conaghan said a collective effort involving all the Irish-immigration centers around the U.S., as well as the Irish government and Irish-American community, would be needed to secure such a fair outcome.
“The Morrison and Donnelly [visa] people are now in position to help those who came behind them. Those visas did not fall off a tree either,” Conaghan said.
The immigration centers needed help now more than ever, he added.
The centers, which operate in part by virtue of Irish government funding, had been through thick and thin in recent years. “It’s been a long walk in the desert and we have walked that journey with the immigrant,” Conaghan said. “But this is some good news.”
Joe Jamison of the Irish American Labor Coalition, which is attached to the AFL-CIO, said that at first glance there seemed to be little for the Irish in Bush’s speech, though it did deliver “a glimmer of hope.”
Jamison said that Bush had positioned himself to cultivate the Latino vote in an election year but he did not believe that the administration was intent on a serious attempt to change public policy in the short run.
“We’re imagining in a void. There’s not enough detail yet as to how the president’s proposals might help the Irish though there are many Irish here who could get job sponsorship,” Jamison said.
The Rev. Michael Leonard of the Irish Immigrant Support Center in Chicago welcomed the Bush speech.
“We hope it turns into a positive development because there are so many undocumented Irish in the country right now,” Leonard said. “We need to be cautious because there are so many details as yet unveiled. I certainly hope this will lead to reform in immigration law.”
Celine Kennelly, of the Irish Immigration and Pastoral Center in San Francisco, said that the speech was a hopeful sign though information as to what might happen next was “phenomenally scant.”
“The details will make or break it,” Kennelly said.
Kennelly said that she hoped that any legislation at the end of the now expected debate on immigration reform would contain elements included in a congressional bill sponsored in part by Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
The bill, which is co-sponsored by Arizona GOP Reps. Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe, does, unlike the Bush outline, include a provision that could result in the undocumented obtaining green cards.
“Let’s face it, what else is out there?” Kennelly said of the McCain bill. “The day of living here as an undocumented immigrant is fading. It’s now a case of either you are here or you are not. A lot of people are considering whether they are going to live here or in Ireland. The getting out and getting back in is now facing everybody.”
Siobhan Dennehy, of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center in Queens, said that the advance expectation of a statement from the White House had raised enormous interest in the Irish community.
“The buildup was phenomenal. We had a lot of calls,” Dennehy said. “We were waiting so long for the issue of immigration reform to be even mentioned again. Everything in recent times has been security related.”
Dennehy stressed that it was vital that Irish immigrant representatives start working now with political advocates who had worked with the Irish in the past.
“If what emerges does not solve the issues for the Irish we should put together our own list of immigration needs,” she said.

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