Hopes of passage of an E3 visa bill to help legal Irish immigration are fading as the main Republican sponsor, Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass), seems to be unable to line up enough GOP support.
A leading Republican lobbyist has told IrishCentral that Brown lacks the clout within the Republican caucus to deliver, despite his very best efforts to do so.
“It is not Scott Brown’s fault, but he simply is not able to convince the old bulls in his own party that he needs this piece of legislation,” said the GOP lobbyist.
Fifty three Democrats have signed on to the bill put forward by Senator Charles Schumer which would grant 10,000 work visas a year to qualified Irish, similar to what Australia receives.
Brown has the support of a handful of GOP senators for his version of the same bill but needs far more to guarantee that the bill can pass.
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Efforts to reach a settlement with Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, who has held up the bill, have not worked out.
Also Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to use his clout to get the bill through his caucus to date.
Irish activists are now considering another all out pitch at more senior Republicans to get them on board for the bill.
The time frame is considered relatively short for action on it before the election climate hots up.
The Irish government is also working all out to try and secure passage of the bill, believing it is the best that will be on offer for some time.
“It can be done if a few of the veteran senators can be persuaded,” said the GOP lobbyist. "That is how the Australians did it, they got then Senate Majority leader Bill Frist on side, to pass it. The Irish need that type of clout."
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has made clear that he will make every personal effort including phoning key senators to make the bill happen.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Terry Brennan | Aug 30, 2012, 02:58 AM EDT
I read that some republicans wonder why Ireland should have an immigration advantage when Americans don't have a reciprocal arrangement for working in Ireland and that is why they are not in favor of the E3 visa- The fact is that millions of americans have an entitlement to an Irish passport if they have one Irish grandparent- There is little bureaucracy attached to this so they already have an advantage.
McNamara31 | Apr 22, 2012, 11:35 AM EDT
"Fifty three Democrats have signed on to the bill" yet "Scott Brown (R-Mass), seems to be unable to line up enough GOP support." Does this surprise anyone here? The GOP considers immigration(or E3 visas)of any kind a dirty word. This was transparent pandering for the Boston Irish vote when in reality Brown knew it would never pass his GOP.
ciaradexy | Apr 22, 2012, 10:43 AM EDT
George, you get more and more boring, retarded, yet slightly funnier with every post ye crazy old Yank!
GeorgeDillon | Apr 22, 2012, 09:32 AM EDT
ciarade:"Im not going to pretend that I know anything about nor care about US politics." Ignorance of a topic hasn't prevented you from posting on it up to now. You post on dozens of topics, and you are ignorant on them all. You're an utter fool.
Curitiba | Apr 21, 2012, 05:57 PM EDT
A government minister was in the paper the other day, begging companies to take on young people, because companies are addicted to cheap foreign labour.
Curitiba | Apr 21, 2012, 05:55 PM EDT
We have have a saying in England, Bythebay, "I read it in the Sun, so it must be true!". I'll let you guess what that means. Personally, I never believe anything I read in the paper. A lot of stuff is just paid-for advertising masquerading as serious journalism,designed to make people believe there is no recession. Believe me, now is not a good time to come looking for a job in England. It has never been like this, and I have seen at least 2 major recessions in my lifetime.
ciaradexy | Apr 21, 2012, 02:44 PM EDT
Why should illegals be put before people who go through the legitimate ways to get into a country? Its pretty easy to get into the US. All you need a job offer.
ciaradexy | Apr 21, 2012, 02:33 PM EDT
Why is my name above the post regarding a pendulum 2 posts down?I didnt post that. Im not going to pretend that I know anything about nor care about US politics!
ciaradexy | Apr 21, 2012, 10:47 AM EDT
George, Ireland isnt even in the top 30 countries for immigration. get your facts straight! The top 10 for a start, are the US,Russia, Germany,Uk, Ukraine, France, Saudi, Canada,India and Spain.
ciaradexy | Apr 21, 2012, 09:52 AM EDT
Remember the goal of articles like this- Get brown out because he is a new republican. The pendulum is swinging back, which means opportunity for individuals to make it on their own may still be alive.
beaumax99 | Apr 21, 2012, 06:53 AM EDT
It certainly takes alot of energy to maintain such hatred and anger towards Americans. I guess it's ok if you haven't anything more important in your life. I am Irish American and if you do not like it...that is just to bad. You keep your anger and hatred to yourself and let the rest of us live and love life as we see fit.
GeorgeDillon | Apr 21, 2012, 01:16 AM EDT
Vincem1: "One last wrinkle concerning Irish immigration is that Ireland has practically blocked immigration itself." That's not true. Ireland is full of foreign migrants, the highest rate of immigration in the world. It's just that they discriminate against Americans when it comes to immigration.
faberm1 | Apr 20, 2012, 10:58 PM EDT
If the Democrats have a majority in favor as stated in this article then why doesn't the bill pass? Another question I never hear addressed here concerns the fact that Ireland discriminates against Americans who wish to go have a hand at working in Ireland. Why should we treat them any different than they treat us? What am I missing here? Irish politicians need to change policies to stop draining Ireland of its wonderfully educated youth. The emigration is senseless.
hollabackgurl | Apr 20, 2012, 09:03 PM EDT
I don't care what you call yourselves, but don't say you're Irish. You are modern day Nativists bolting the door to the Irish hordes. You're the same crowd, different century, that is all.
vincem13 | Apr 20, 2012, 08:38 PM EDT
First off, most of my family came to the States LEGALLY during and just after the Potato Famine from Ireland, so I would be very happy to welcome some more of the Irish to this great melting pot. All those griping about the Republicans being so against immigration are just repeating the National Democratic Party/Obama Campaign talking points without really looking at the issue. The fact is that the USA just doesn't have a healthy enough economy or infrastructure to handle an increase in legal immigration- let alone accommodate the illegals. I think it's kind of funny that someone still thinks that the GOP wants to give millionaires a tax-cut. Three problems with that: it's only a tax cut if you decrease the rate of taxation- they're not; almost one half of all legal Americans after all is said and done end up with no federal taxes to pay; oh, and most of the very rich are democrats not republicans. One last wrinkle concerning Irish immigration is that Ireland has practically blocked immigration itself. What was that about "those who live in glass houses..."?
Curitiba | Apr 20, 2012, 07:10 PM EDT
The public sector is facing very deep financial cuts this year hollabackgurl, it was thought that the private sector would soak up all the newly redundant public sector workers, but that turned out to be economic fantasy. The only growth we have is in population, almost solely due to immigration, and second-generation immigrants, so perhaps there will be a lot of teaching jobs coming up, but that will be at the expense of some other part of the PS. The truth is, London generates the lions share of taxation revenue through the banking sector, but the rest of the country has very little going for it.
mopickelly | Apr 20, 2012, 05:19 PM EDT
I am An American who happens to have a great grandfather who came from Ireland (County Down with relatives in County Roscommon). There are two reasons that I am against this bill. The first is rather unsubstantiated at this time. That is the belief that these quotas can be used by the Irish that are already here illegally. I have not been able to get to the bottom of this point. I remain strictly against rewarding illegal immigration, regardless of which country the illegal aliens are from. Secondly,presuming that my first point is not factual, at a time when have record unemployment, we certainly do not to be increasing immigration quotas. We are beginning to run short of water and our whole infrastructure is suffering from too many people.We should be taking steps to stabilize our population rather than increasing it.
hollabackgurl | Apr 20, 2012, 04:27 PM EDT
England is in the deepest recession it has faced in generations. And again I say, what kind of Irish person can you claim to be Bythebay to hold the door closed to your ancestral countrymen? And then to exult in their rejection? How dare you tell the Irish to look elsewhere, Americas corporations make very profitable use of Ireland and the Irish.
Mick10000 | Apr 20, 2012, 04:24 PM EDT
"And I hear it told there's a lady in the harbor. Tall, strong and stately, she stands by the sea. She holds out her torch to bid us warm welcome; to the land of our future, Alannah Mo Chroi." find the song (u tbe) and my point is made.
Curitiba | Apr 20, 2012, 04:19 PM EDT
Sounds about right, Bythebay. Any jobs available in England are advertised abroad. It was in the Daily Mail the other week. If you wanted a job in London, all you had to do was go to Bucharest. No shortage of English jobs there!
irishcoffeekid | Apr 20, 2012, 03:15 PM EDT
Given they werent even giving the full details on what the bill meant, its not that big a surprise its bombing. you still wouldnt be able to come to the USA without a job offer so it wasnt going to solve any real problems given how many IT graduates there are out of work here already. Before an employer could offer a job outside the USA they had to prove there were no candidates in the USA - impossible to prove right now given the volume of unemployed. As it is immigration laws are changing to make it harder for companies to hire overseas employees when there is increasing unemployment in the USA and with qualified candidates available in every state. Pretending this was going to give 10,000 jobs to foreigners and it would be easy was a mistake to begin with!
hollabackgurl | Apr 20, 2012, 02:02 PM EDT
You should crack open a newspaper Bythebay. England's in a deep recession. And what kind of Irish person can you claim to be to hold the door closed to your ancestral countrymen?
hollabackgurl | Apr 20, 2012, 01:30 PM EDT
The article clearly states that Senator Scott Brown's bill is being obstructed by his own Republican Party. This isn't because the Irish don't have a friend on Capitol Hill. The GOP are giving every immigrant the boot. They only exist now to provide tax cuts to millionaires.
Curitiba | Apr 20, 2012, 01:28 PM EDT
errrm...there are NOT plenty of jobs in England, Bythebay. A few years ago, people would greet friends and acquaintences with a cheery "Hi, how are you?". Now it's "Hi, are you still working?"
greensod | Apr 20, 2012, 01:18 PM EDT
Can you believe Enda Kenny trying to get rid of as many Irish as possible.Another great example why we need Sinn Fein in power.The only reason Brown is trying to get this bill passed is sucking up to get the Irish vote in Boston so he can hold his seat.Bythebay I agree with your position.Ireland needs its youth,and America has its own problems.This Brown fellow is a slick operator.but the Lady is going to send him home this time.This woman is much different from the last one he faced,she is for real and she cares.Kenny find jobs for your people in Ireland,America is a little short on jobs at the moment.
Dublinborn | Apr 20, 2012, 01:17 PM EDT
When US Politicians read the commie crap from the Irish Voice in NYC its a wonder why they will let any of us in.
Dublinborn | Apr 20, 2012, 01:13 PM EDT
This is what happens when the Irish put all their EGGS in the Democrat party basket. They have no friends on Capital hill
Murph46 | Apr 20, 2012, 10:33 AM EDT
hollabackgurl-you might want to learn something relevant to the discussion b4 you open your pie hole,Dem's could pass it any time they want -It's not GOP obstructionism you twit!
BrianO | Apr 20, 2012, 09:53 AM EDT
The democrats have the majority in the senate, if the democrats wanted they could pass this tomorrow. What do you know about Brown that lets you be so knowing. Remember it was Kennedy great liberal democrat that changed the immigration laws against the Irish-- Irish people were disproportionately affected by the 1965 Immigration Act which effectively closed the door to future Irish immigrants. The late Senator Edward Kennedy, one of the original architects of the 1965 Act admitted that in a 2006 panel on immigration when he said that the Act and subsequent changes "worked in a very dramatic and significant way against the Irish."
hollabackgurl | Apr 20, 2012, 09:26 AM EDT
Learn the lesson kids: Republicans exist to hand millionaires bigger tax breaks. The rest of you don't stand a chance. They will never lift a finger to help the Irish. Never have, never will. As long as they control this bill it's going nowhere.