Anti-immigrant group Numbers USA mobilizes to stop Irish visa bill

Curitiba, we ALL have a responsibility to help those who are less fortunate than our selves. Its a simple humanist philosophy which is also part of most religious philosophy as far as Im aware so yeah, Ireland should take some in. 1 million Irish emigrated during the famine, it would be hypocritical for us to ignore the starving in other parts of the world who may need help.

Folks, NumbersUSA is an excellent source of material. Apparently better than this one. As usual, this article cannot understand or make separation between legal and illegal immigration. To them, it seems immigration is all that matters, even if illegal. Also, they obviously feel that the Irish should be privileged. They ignore that we currently have over 22 million unemployed in our country, and that ANY VISA increases are counter productive to the U.S. solving its unemployment problem. Granted the bill to allow another 10,500 Irish into the U.S. is detrimental to Ireland, but they fail to consider that without the jobs, all another 10,500 people in the U.S. would do is bloat the unemployment numbers here even further. Come done on NumbersUSA all you want, but when you do, please use a bit of everyday common sense, will you?

What is being overlooked here is that immigration policy in the U.S., Europe, Ireland, or elsewhere should be beneficial to, or, at the very least, not harmful to the citizens of the country. With high unemployment in the U.S., it would be insane to carve out yet another special visa category to allow more foreign/Irish workers to take jobs from Americans. Based on comments posted here, it seems many in Ireland wish they had more control over immigration. Many decent-paying jobs have left the U.S., and many Americans have been unemployed for long periods of time or have dropped out of the work force altogether. Stopping increases in foreign workers to compete with U.S. workers can in no way be construed as targeting the Irish or anyone else. Sorry guys, but as an American of Irish background, I believe it is in the interest of American workers to reduce all immigration, especially now with the state of our economy.

Does anyone else notice the incongruity of the headline of the Irish Central article "Anti-Immigrant group Numbers USA..." almost side by side with a photo of a Numbers USA placard which says "Immigrants YES, Illegals NO"? What part of that placard could the Irish Central folks not understand?

One of the craziest things I've ever heard was told to me in Ireland a few weeks back. Many readers will be familiar with the Society of Vincent de Paul, a Catholic charity which in the past did good work in alleviating poverty in Ireland. They still hold regular collections in Ireland. But what is not well known is that one of the ways they use the money gathered is to pay the fines of foreign criminals who are convicted in Irish courts! Shoplifters, petty thieves, fraudsters etc. from places like Eastern Europe and Africa, all they need do is give St Vincent de Paul a call when they are before a court. SVP will show up with a checkbook and write a check. Once again the good people of Ireland are being made utter fools of.

Assimillation is an important issue. Around 1900, a cartoon expressed what was then the hope for immigrants coming to America: people in assorted national costumes climbed a ladder into a large "smelting" or melting pot, and climbed out the other side all dressed as identical Uncle Sams. By the 1980s, a new ideal had developed, multiculturalism - many different ethnic groups could live together but maintain their separate identities. The former version requires generations of intermarriage; the latter version is the one that has been causing trouble in places like France and Germany.

4 billion people are desperately poor and opressed and need our help, Ciara. Should they all be let into Ireland?

Really impressive contribution from the NUMBERS USA folks here. Why don't they set up a branch in Ireland? NUMBERS IRELAND sounds like it would make a good research and lobbying group to try to bring some sanity into Irish immigration policy.

Eiriamach, you've never been outside the US, have you? Because if you go to other countries as I have, such as Asia, Europe and South America, you'll see people wearing American style jeans, listening to rap or other American music, watching American movies, using American technology such as i-pads, following American celebraties such as Angeline etc. etc. The Irish are a case in point, they consider themselves half-American already because they watch so much American TV shows and movies. Eiriamach, you just won't see how much American culture permeates vast areas of the whole world until you travel more.

Absurd article. Is IrishCentral racist because it asks for your degree of "Irishness"? NumbersUSA is an organization that supports reasonable LEGAL immigration, not ILLEGAL immigration. The only ones that support ILLEGAL immigration are the businesses that want to take advantage of their status to pay them substandard wages, and those with their own, selfish agenda. Illegal immigrants are criminals; they have broken the laws of the country they have violated. Would IrishCentral support the illegal immigration of 25 million Russians into Ireland? Or, 25 million Mexicans, Or Germans, or of any country? I think not. The United States has been the most welcoming country in the world, taking in more immigrants than ALL OTHER COUNTRIES COMBINED. We support those who obey our laws and come here legally, but we cannot tolerate open, illegal entry, just as any country should. Wake up! Its so easy to throw the "R" word out, but its been done so much, its losing its impact. People are starting to be skeptical of anyone who screams "racism" whenever something happens that they don't like. Its the boy that cries wolf, over and over.

I am proud of my Irish heritage, however, I cannot agree with this article. I have been a member of Numbers USA for several years because I believe there are simply too many illegal immigrants in our country, and because of that there is no room for more legal immigrants. Sure we have plenty of land but people don't live in the desert or plains of North Dakota, they move to cities and live in run down appartment buildings, work cheap and send thousands of $$ back to Mexico or other countries. They take the jobs that white men use to do. Don't tell me white men do not know how to roof a house, they do, but illegals work for less money so they get hired. Two of my grown children are out of work. My niece has been outof work for 3 years. Illegals also receive Social Security and welfare that my taxes pay for. Americans are tired of paying for people who come here and break our laws and take our jobs. Secondly, to "eiriamach" Please be aware that bringing illegals or any immigrant into the USA who refuses to learn the language destroys our schools. Do you have any idea how hard it is to teach a room full of children when one child cannot speak English? Try a room with several children who can't speak English! Now you have an idea why our schools are not doing very well. This country has become so politically correct no one can set standards and abide by them. If a child can't speak our language that is ok, send them to school and they will eventually learn but at what cost? The cost is to the other 24 students who can speak English but teacher spends so much time with the one child that the others go beggin. To assume we need uneducated immigrants to do our work because our schools are bad is unbelievable.

Why on Earth would you tell a fib, a big one that NumbersUSA is anti-immigrant? They are not. They are anti-illegal immigrant and we have so many here that have taken over our jobs, churches, schools, healthcare system to a point of no return!!! We need to close our southern borders and decrease immigration from all countries until we get a handle on our situation. I was born in N. Ireland and I am a proud American since 1999! You need to look at La Raza and Luluac and see what they are up to right inside our borders and they are doing it illegally. NumbersUSA has it right and there is not one bone in their bodies that is anti-immigrant. Please be careful of your reporting and do not follow the left-wing media here who has it all wrong.

Please, before slandering any group, please get the facts straight. I know of only one group that believes NumbersUSA is a racist group and that is La Raza (the race), which seeks to reclaim the southwestern states as a homeland for Latinos. This non-rofit organization was not founded by John Tanton, but Roy Beck. SPLC has never claimed NumbersUSA as racist. Numbers does support stopping "illegal" immigration, E-Verify and hiring of Americans 1st during this ecoomic crisis. Perhaps it would be an eyeopener if, before making false claims, went to NumbersUSA.com, read what the organization is about and watched the Gumball Analogy video.

Curitiba.Listen to eiriamach you might learn something at comment Feb 11, 2012, 11:01 AM EST.

FedUp, like the Irish ''assimilated'' in the US, Australia and Canada etc? You can see from some Americans posts on here that they hold a very old form of irish culture dear to them. They didnt 'assimilate' with the natives in these countries so why do you expect migrants into Ireland to do what they didnt? People are entitled to claim asylum here or should we ban everyone even those who really need our help?