THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
I am that guy that always gets stopped by airport security after I have walked, nonchalantly I imagine, through the Green Area. I have nothing to declare, nor am I smuggling contraband. But I always get stopped. I must have that kind of demeanour, or whatever.
In my many trips to the US in the past 10 years to visit my two sons, I am allowed into America for the duration of my 90-day holiday visa. And I am always asked by American security at Dublin Airport where am I staying and when do I intend returning. My return ticket seems to satisfy the burly Homeland Security agents. I smile a ‘thank you’ to them. They don’t smile back.
During the recession years of the Eighties and in the subsequent decades many Irish went to America on that 90-day visa but never came home. To pursue the promised American dream, they went under the radar, secured work – even paid their taxes – and settled in among communities, marrying and rearing children. They became the ‘undocumented’ Irish in the US.
The often quoted tally of 50,000 undocumented Irish immigrants in America has been equally as often disputed. Obviously, if you are there illegally, you don’t necessarily go around broadcasting the fact. The Pew Research Centre in Washington DC not long ago put the figure at more likely 10,000 t0 15,000. Any US census never asks one if they are in the country illegally so such censuses add nothing to the tally. However, data from the Department of Homeland Security shows that, on average, just 1,600 Irish people annually become permanent residents – like both my sons.
Now, with Donald Trump back in the White House, there are questions over the future of the very many Irish people living undocumented, as Trump has vowed to carry out the “largest deportation effort in American history”.
Ohio Republican Representative David Joyce told RTÉ’s States of Mind podcast that he believed the US could see “hundreds of thousands” being deported from the country under Trump’s presidency. However when asked should Irish people worry, Mr Joyce said he believed that those who were going to be deported would be “criminals”.
“You want to deport everybody but the reality of that is that it would be very, very tough to do,” the congressman said.
Congressman Joyce, who has been re-elected for another term, said he understood that there were a lot of “good Irish” who had integrated into US society and were productive.
However, a US immigration lawyer has warned that Trump’s citizenship restrictions could well impact the children of undocumented Irish.
One of Trump’s executive orders aims to remove the right to automatic US citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants or those born to a mother legally in the US on a temporary basis (such as a work visa) when the father is not a US citizen or lawful permanent resident. Janice Flynn is a US-Irish citizen from Chicago who offers US immigration legal services in London and Dublin. Ms Flynn said that the (current) law grants automatic citizenship to anyone born in the US. “It’s straightforward enough. If you’re in the United States, and you give birth, you’re contributing to society – you need to have that considered [in assessing immigration status].”
She said that, for Irish citizens living in the US without residency, Trump’s move could limit their children’s involvement in society and “access to education, employment and healthcare”.
This writer has believed this ‘unconstitutional’ executive order would be defeated in court, and on Thursday January 23rd a federal judge temporarily blocked this particular executive signed off by Trump, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional” during what is just the first hearing in a multi-state effort challenging the order.
Some of Trump’s other executive orders are already facing legal challenges; protesters have come out and will resist him and his acolytes. Among the bravest is Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who led the post-inauguration interfaith prayer service, attended by Trump , the VP, and their wives. In a steady voice she asked the president to have mercy on migrants and on gay, lesbian and transgender people. Trump looked menacing. He has since branded the bishop “nasty”.
In this ‘democracy’, which purports to lead the free world, the leader expects to be revered, always and by all…
