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Bridie Murphy will be allowed to keep green card

Immigration relents after media pressure

PATRICK COOPER,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, September 26, 2010, 8:06 AM

Updated Sunday, September 26, 2010, 8:15 AM

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Bridie Murphy, who was detained by immigration authorities, will have her green card returned to her

The immigration authorities have announced that Bridie Murphy, the almost 80-year-old woman from Galway will be allowed to keep her U.S. green card.

Murphy was detained off a flight from Ireland, held for three and a half hours and had her green card confiscated despite being in the U.S. for sixty years. She has two sons in the miitary including one in the Middle East.

Murphy had visited a daughter in Ireland for eleven months and was stopped when she tried to return to America. Her family say she became quite confused during her interview at immigration as she has sought counsel before she left for Ireland and was told she did not need a re-entry document other than her green card.

She gave up her green card after three and a half hours of questioning.

“They said it was the only way I was going to be able to go home," Bridie told the Boston Globe. “So I signed the paper. I’ve made a novena, every day, since the Korean War, and I made a novena that day, too. I guess the novenas didn’t work."

Two of Bridie Murphy’s sons are in the US military.

Peter Murphy is in the Air Force. Patrick Murphy is in the army and currently in Kuwait.

Irish Pastoral Center’s Kieran O’Sullivan said, “To do it to a woman whose sons are serving this country is unbelievable."

Chris Lavery, her lawyer said, “What are the people who did this to Bridie protecting us from? A 79-year-old woman who worked her whole life, who gave us her children to fight our wars?"

Harold Ort of the immigration service told the Boston Globe however, that she would be given her green card back, “ICE will not comment on specifics of an individual’s case. However, after considering all factors, ICE is exercising prosecutorial discretion in Mrs. Murphy’s case and will not pursue the case before the immigration judge."

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WoundedKnee | Oct 03, 2010, 04:03 PM EDT

Delta19USA: You might want to familiarize yourelf with the law. A US citizen MUST use his/her US passport when entering or leaving the USA.

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fgdgrfg | Sep 29, 2010, 04:18 PM EDT

i want travel on u s a

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CullenAbroad | Sep 27, 2010, 03:14 PM EDT

YAY! (DennisQ you got it right).

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Dublinjas | Sep 27, 2010, 02:46 PM EDT

Here is one more important reason for taking out Citizenship, You remove interference with your comings and goings and life in the Nation from the Whims of Glorified Doormen called ICE and move it to the protected Domain of the US. Constitution and the Supreme Court.

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Dublinjas | Sep 27, 2010, 02:32 PM EDT

Does any of this sound like you have a Government of the people by the people for the people, Or is the US a total Dictatorship....Sounds like the latter to me. Also DennisQ you are bang on right.

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NancyLou9 | Sep 27, 2010, 12:27 PM EDT

Phoenixnurse - AMEN! While they were hassling this poor women, I'm sure a dozen people who SHOULD have been questioned were sent on their merry way. George - The first report stated she would have to be out of the country for two years before her green card status became an issue, at least that what she was told before she left. To all those calling for her to become a citizen - last time I checked, this wasn't required of anyone who is in the US for any extended period of time. Becoming a citizen is a personal choice, at least for now, until the nanny state of Obama's presidency gets involved. If Bridie wishes to retain her Irish citizenship after being here for 60 years I say good for her. I'm just glad someone with some common sense finally intervened and is giving Bridie her green card back. I mean, jeez louise, it's as someone said earlier, we're not under attack by little old Irish ladies.

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Spoon517 | Sep 27, 2010, 10:21 AM EDT

The Feds need to treat Bridie like they did Obamma's Aunt. Give her free public housing and $700US/month in Social Security payments. Oh wait!!!! She didn't sneak into the US,go underground for years after being ordered deported,and never pay into SS. So, ole Barry can't have the Feds quietly give her permanent status and quietly slither off into the night.

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AlunPalmer | Sep 27, 2010, 04:25 AM EDT

Mr Dillon, my loyalties are a little conflicted - between Britain and Ireland! America is where I live, but I came here too late in life to ever feel like an American. I suppose you are the sort who will tell me to go back where I came from. There are people like that everywhere, most of whom are unemployed because they never bothered to learn any useful skills, and find immigrants to be useful as scapegoats.

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DennisQ | Sep 26, 2010, 09:55 PM EDT

There's no "global terrorism" - that's an invention of the CIA. This whole apparatus is for display. Back in the 1950's we were warned about monolithic Communism, which we were told was seeking world domination. But it was basically chasing a ghost, because there wasn't any Communist monolith.

We didn't actually find out that Communism wasn't a threat until we lost the Vietnam war. Hawkish conservatives who'd predicted a "domino effect" if we didn't intervene in Vietnam looked pretty foolish indeed. 58,000 young Americans lost their lives that that ill-fated military venture, and war hawks fell out of favor for decades afterwards.

Now they're back! This time they're replacing monolithic Communism with monolithic terrorism. Imagine the absurdity of putting 80-year old Nana through the third degree until she confesses what she knows about the attack on the Pentagon.

There's one thing we know for sure about war hawk conservatives. You can't laugh them out of town. That only gets them madder.

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kurtjohnson | Sep 26, 2010, 08:56 PM EDT

Had there been no media coverage these thugs would have most likely threatened her with prison. You can bet the Saudi friends of Baker and Bush move in and out of the country as they please. The US shadow govt is accountable to no one and has no ethical restraints - a nasty waspish project to the core.

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HughesDohmann | Sep 26, 2010, 06:50 PM EDT

Well come to think of it. That novena most likely did work. Green card back ! Our Catholic Faith and Trust in God. Go ahead and put down our faith it only gives us blessings. As Jesus said. If they insult and hate you all because of me, blessed blessed are you!

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HughesDohmann | Sep 26, 2010, 06:39 PM EDT

Damn straight. Should of never bothered her.

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Delta19USA | Sep 26, 2010, 03:53 PM EDT

This is outrageous considering Bridies age. I am originally from England and have been here five years. Got my citizenship last April so now I have two passports, a US one and a UK European union one. Next time I go back to visit relatives in the UK, I think I will swap and change the passports just to confuse and upset these idiots

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margaretdurning | Sep 26, 2010, 03:51 PM EDT

I will never understand why someone would chose to live in the United States for sixty years and never become a citizen!!

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leahforce | Sep 26, 2010, 03:27 PM EDT

If all that was learned from this is that superstitious clap-trap like novenas don’t work then it was worth it. G-d is best approached directly.

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