Fixing the system

The rally was the culmination of an event titled the Freedom Ride, a two-week national campaign to raise awareness of immigration issues modeled after the 1961 freedom rides of the civil rights movement.
New York’s Emerald Isle Immigration Center and Boston’s Irish Immigration Center were both represented at the rally, chartering their own buses to transport supporters to and from the venue.
Described by the organizers as a response to the shift in the U.S. position toward immigrants since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, speaker after speaker lamented that U.S. policy now reflects the assumption that, far from being seen as a pillar of strength, immigrants are now being depicted as a primary national threat.
Speaking to reporters at the event, New York-based Irish immigration activist Sean Benson said: “Once again the time has come to address the immigration question. The current situation in many ways mirrors the situation back in the 1980s, even though the numbers arriving here are smaller this time. But no one can dispute that the situation for Irish immigrants is much more difficult now. And at a time when Irish immigrants are looking for support from the Irish government, it’s disappointing that the minister for foreign affairs, Minister [Brian] Cowen, has decided to pull back when they most need his support.
“We have reports of increasing numbers of people being turned back at Dublin and Shannon – or deported. I think that it is part of the responsibility of the Irish government to its citizens to ensure that they can gain entry to the United States. But the standards that the American government applies to decide entry have dramatically shifted without any comment from the Irish government. The government as part of the EU should use that particular forum to lobby to make it easier Irish people coming to the United States.”
Benson said that it was no longer possible to view recent immigration changes as the acceptable but regrettable side effects of the post-9/11 emergency response.
“There are three problems with current U.S. immigration policy. First of all, from an administrative perspective, applications are getting delayed or even lost,” he said.
“The transition from the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the Department of Homeland Security has been less than smooth. As a matter of fact the processing system is broken. The second problem is the current categories of visas do not adequately reflect the needs of U.S. companies who are seeking to hire workers from outside the country — nor do they adequately reflect the needs of people who come here on a temporary visa. Thirdly, with the Patriot Act we now have a situation where the immigration service is now part of the justice department and homeland security. So they have added a political umbrella over this. But in my view these two things have to be separated out. The notion of security is one thing, but the processing of immigrants ought to be separated out from that.”
Agreeing that Mayor Bloomberg’s recent “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on immigration status was a boon to the undocumented living and working in New York, Benson was mindful of the plight of those living elsewhere in the nation. “Today even incidental contact with law enforcement can potentially lead to deportations — even for something as simple as a parking ticket violation. Undocumented immigrants could now find the justice department at their door the next morning. That’s an incredible shift from what we’ve seen in the past. And it’s a huge concern.”
Siobhan Dennehy, the executive director of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center in Queens, echoed Benson’s sentiments.
“We need to mobilize and get the message out to the public,” she said. “A new generation of Irish immigrants has arrived in the United States and they desperately need our help. They are encountering problems that are actually worse than the ones that our generation encountered — they can’t get driver’s licenses, they can’t get social security cards and they can’t leave the U.S. under any circumstances if they want to return. As hard as it was for us in the 1980s it was nothing like as bad as it is now.
“This new generation of the Irish are living under a huge radar screen that can track all their movements. They can’t put a foot wrong — or else.”
Attorney Eamonn Dornan of Smith Dornan and Shea in Manhattan deals on a daily basis with the complex legal questions that can beset Irish immigration cases. Attending the rally, he reflected on the plight of this latest generation of Irish arrivals.
“This rally is just the start of a push for legislation that will ease the burden on the millions of undocumented in the country,” he said. “Legislation will have to be drafted, congressional members will have to push it and it will have to be part of a wide and bipartisan movement. It’s an uphill struggle but my view is that eventually there may be a change that will allow some positive legislation to go through.”
The government, Dornan contended, have some sound economic reasons to enact new legislation. “If you do legalize millions of undocumented workers, then right away they become part of the tax system and they contribute badly needed resources,” he said.
“Secondly, you ease the case burden on the Department of Homeland Security, which is right now backlogged in the attempt to track down millions of undocumented workers. And thirdly, it’s evident to most observers that immigrants who become citizens often become some of the most politically active and patriotic citizens in the nation. There should be a move to recognize that. I’m encouraged that something can happen, but it will be a struggle.”
Some critics have questioned the effectiveness of the freedom ride. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Manhattan, told the New York Times: “The people who would need to be persuaded to support an amnesty for illegal immigrants are Republicans and busloads of illegal immigrants hijacking the vocabulary of the civil rights movement is not a recipe for currying favor with Republican congressmen.”
Nonetheless, many employers, including hotel and restaurant owners, now strongly support the immigrant rights movements, believing that granting status to undocumented immigrants would spare them the risk of employing workers illegally.
To date the rally’s sponsors have not detailed what legislation they would like to grant legal status to illegal immigrants. But at the weekend many speakers voiced support for a bill that would grant legal amnesty to illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States for five years.
This was the time period advocated by Joe Tyrrell of the Laborers International Union. “They should have justice. They should have equity in the law,” he told a cheering crowd.
On the day, speaker after speaker agreed that the rally should be the beginning and not the end of an effort, with immigrants stepping up their campaign for expanded rights and protections in the months ahead.