February 15, 2011
By Staff Reporter
“Strong accents,” according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, are now probable cause enough for INS agents to stop and question people as they line up to buy a cup of coffee. With this in mind, it might do well for Irish immigrants with a Tipperary twang or Leitrim lilt to carry a note in one’s pocket: “Coffee, please,” then hope to heaven that the person behind the counter doesn’t pose the question, “milk, sugar?” or let rip with something like “howze about those Red Sox?”
Suffice it to say, the carry-on in Upper Darby, Pa., recently brought shivers to those who remember the bad old days of the 1980s when working to improve one’s lot while being Irish frequently brought forth the wrath of immigration officialdom. But let’s not blame those charged with carrying through the letter of the current law. INS officers have a job to do, like the rest of us.
What does seem to be a problem is that young Irish still seem to feel that they must sneak in Uncle Sam’s back door in order to lay claim to their piece of the America dream. Clearly, the Celtic Tiger or the dividends of North peace are not doing it for all on the island of Ireland and there are equally clear indications that the present diversity visa scheme is not doing it for all there who see America as their stairway to a viable future.
Given the current laws Congress has set so rigidly in place, those who were handcuffed in Philadelphia must now content themselves for the foreseeable future with an American life lived through the movies or an Irish McDonald’s. Their crime? Wanting to better their lot and, by historical implication, that of America itself. Time indeed to dust off a few of those “Legalize the Irish” posters of yesteryear.