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Irish cautious but upbeat over Obama's immigration plan

President says he wants to legalize "illegal immigrants" by 2010

By
ANTOINETTE KELLY,
IrishCentral.Com Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 9:01 AM
Updated Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 9:19 AM

 

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Families of the undocumented Irish at a rally in Dublin in 2007
Families of the undocumented Irish at a rally in Dublin in 2007

Undocumented Irish immigrants in the U.S. are cautiously optimistic about immigration reform after President Barack Obama said he would provide a "pathway to citizenship" for illegal immigrants.

Speaking in Mexico yesterday, President Barack Obama said he wanted to provide a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

He said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is already co-ordinating meetings on immigration reform with Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

"I would anticipate that before the year is out we will have draft legislation, along with sponsors potentially in the House and Senate, who are ready to move this forward," Obama said.

He said he wanted to be enable to enact legislation in 2010 which would provide a "pathway to citizenship" for millions of illegal immigrants.  "We have a broken immigration system. Nobody denies it," he said. "It's not fair, and it's not right, and we're going to change it."

And he said he would not be swayed by "short-term political calculations," adding that immigration reform is in the nationa's long-term interest.

But he said it was "very important for us to sequence these big initiatives in way where they don't all just crash at the same time."

The reform would legalize the status of millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. - including approximately 50,000 undocumented Irish and give them "a pathway to citizenship so that they don't have to live in the shadows," Obama said. "So I'm confident we can get it done."

Mayo man, Gerry Brennan, 43, said he was still hopeful that comprehensive immigration reform would be enacted within the next 10 months.

Brennan, who has lived in Boston for the past 15 years, said he was cautious but optimistic that "things will come right."

"I've been on the ILIR rallies in Washington," he said, "and I've seen myself how hard this is to get through. It's like rolling a boulder up a big hill. But we have to keep pushing. What else can we do?" he said.

There are an estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish in the U.S. out of a total undocumented population of about 14 million.

Accurate numbers are notoriously difficult to come by but Irish immigration centers say that the number of Irish immigrants has been steadily rising amid the downturn in the Irish economy.

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5 Comments

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Posted by bob40wil on Jan 13, 2010, 02:16 PM EST
Unemployment is at 10% and the idiots in Washington, both sides of the aisle, want to legalize the millions illegals in this country.When do the Countries they come from start to claim some of the responsibility for their own citizens. Start charging the Countrys the illegals come from $100,000 a head to cover the schooling, medical and housing expences of their citizens, it might make it a l;ittle easier to have them here.
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Posted by kickstar on Dec 26, 2009, 07:19 PM EST
There will never be a General Amnesty for all 14 million or so people, This would be an impossible task to supervise. Instead you will be asked to remove yourself from the country and then have the opportunity to apply for residency based on your record of behavior for the years in the country illegally.
Report abuse
Posted by ThomasCoolberth on Dec 26, 2009, 05:15 PM EST
How about a switch? You can have my spot in this emerging Third World hellhole and I'll take your spot in Ireland.
Report abuse
Posted by Meggie01 on Dec 24, 2009, 05:13 PM EST
The Irish are being used as pawns. The entire country will soon be nothing but North Mexico. Already 1 in 20 school children is the child of hispanics, mostly illegal. They take all the unskilled labor jobs and suck the resources out of our economy. Why would anyone come here now?
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Posted by Madeleine on Dec 22, 2009, 12:37 PM EST
I don't know why anyone is coming to America in the first place, its economy is at an all time low and getting worse and there are no jobs for Americans or anyone else. I wish there were. This is no longer the land of milk and honey or opportunity for anyone. Funny, no one in America knew about these speeches,just perfect for his re-election, millions and millions of Mexicans will vote for him, thats what Sonia Sotomayer is for, as a member of LaRaza and the Suprteme court she can talk the Mexicans into anything especially if she keeps her promise of getting them amnisty and legal status. I can guarantee Irish will be the last on the list unless you have something to give Obama.
 


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