Bill O'Reilly may want to turn the administration's strengths into weaknesses by embracing issues that the GOP have traditionally opposed.

A majority of US voters support immigration reform that provides a pathway to full citizenship for the nation’s undocumented immigrants, according to polls released this week by bipartisan polling groups.

An urgent need for immigration reform was the Irish American message at a Washington inaugural brunch hosted by the Council for American Ireland Relations (CAIR).

President Obama is to outline his plan for immigration reform at an event in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Both Republicans and Democrats agreed at the weekend that a path to citizenship for the undocumented will be part of the new immigration reform bill.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer said he and his fellow Senators who support immigration reform believe 2013 will be the year Congress “finally gets it done.”

The Chicago Celts for Immigration Reform applauds President Obama for his courageous step forward in declaring his commitment to a comprehensive overhaul of our broken immigration system.

Irish immigrants, who fled the famine and arrived on US shores, were exceptional savers, according to the most recent issue of the Journal of American History.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid says he believes the proposed immigration reforms announced last week will pass. He warned Republicans not to oppose it. He spoke with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Sunday.

Canadian working visas were snapped up in record time by thousands of hopeful Irish immigrants last week.

The White House has announced that President Obama will be holding a series of meetings on Tuesday 12 February 2013 in support of his campaign to reform the nation’s immigration system.

As the debate over immigration reform begins in earnest this week after the House Judiciary Committee held its first hearing, it is clear we stand on the cusp of the most important few months for the Irish in America in many decades.

A group of Irish workers in Perth, Australia recreated an iconic photograph while on their construction job during the weeThe original ‘Lunch Atop a Skyscraper’ photograph, which features several Irishmen, was taken in 1932 above the RCA building, now the GE building, in New York City’s Rockefeller Center.

John Ruddy, one of the 57 Irish laborers who died during the cholera outbreak in 1832, will be returned to Donegal to be buried in his homeland.

A top Republican lawmaker has said he would support granting children of undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship.

The Irish nanny accused of the brutal assault that led to the death of baby Rehma Sabir has asked for an ‘avalanche’ of evidence as she fights the charges.

As ten brave, single men from across the five boroughs prepare for a private interview, on stage performance, and party piece in the hopes of being crowned New York's Bachelor of the Year in Gaelic Park on February 16, there's only one man to put them through their paces. That man is the Irish Aisling Center’s Bachelor of the Year’s host, Dáithí Ó Sé.

A trans-Atlantic Irish family is dealing with the cruel realization that two of their three young boys are suffering from a rare genetic illness that could take their lives if sustained medical steps aren’t taken to stem the spread of the disease.

It took a move to New York for April Drew to find the Irish man of her dreams, and she’ll never want for a Valentine again thanks to the love her life, John Mooney.

In 2004 Angela Boylan, then 34, had just got married to Pablo Ruiz. Mass General Magazine reports the Irish woman living in Boston was looking forward to starting a family but soon after received the shocking news that she had uterine cancer and would likely never bear children. A second medical opinion bore out the first diagnosis.

Undocumented immigrants will be able to receive a green card after eight years of provisional status, according to the leaked White House document on President Obama’s immigration bill. There are an estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish in the U.S. The document was leaked to USA Today.

• The new visa status would be called a “lawful prospective immigrant visa” which would be granted and would allow the person to work in the country and make brief visits out of the country until they gained a regular green card after eight years.

• The Obama bill version leaked to USA Today does not have a cut off date by which the undocumented immigrant had to be in the country, a major factor for more recent Irish immigrants hoping to take advantage of the proposed bill.

• Undocumented immigrants must come forward and register, submit biometric data, pass criminal background and national security checks, and pay taxes and penalties before they will be eligible for a provisional legal status.  Agricultural workers and those who entered the United States as children would be eligible for the same program.

• Individuals must wait until the existing legal immigration backlogs are cleared before getting in line to apply for lawful permanent residency (i.e. a “green card”), and ultimately United States citizenship. Consistent with current law, people with provisional legal status will not be eligible for welfare or other federal benefits, including subsidies or tax credits under the new health care law.

• Those applying for green cards must pay their taxes, pass additional criminal background and national security checks, register for Selective Service (where applicable), pay additional fees and penalties, and learn English and U.S. civics.  As under current law, five years after receiving a green card, individuals will be eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship like every other legal permanent resident.

• Earned citizenship for DREAMers. Children brought here illegally through no fault of their own by their parents will be eligible for earned citizenship.  By going to college or serving honorably in the Armed Forces for at least two years, these children should be given an expedited opportunity to earn their citizenship.  The President’s proposal brings these undocumented immigrants out of the shadows.

• Create administrative and judicial review. An individual whose provisional lawful status has been revoked or denied, or whose application for adjustment has been denied, will have the opportunity to seek administrative and judicial review of those decisions.

• Keep Families Together. The proposal seeks to eliminate existing backlogs in the family-sponsored immigration system by recapturing unused visas and temporarily increasing annual visa numbers.  The proposal also raises existing annual country caps from 7 percent to 15 percent for the family-sponsored immigration system.   It also treats same-sex families as families by giving U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents the ability to seek a visa on the basis of a permanent relationship with a same-sex partner. The proposal also revises current unlawful presence bars and provides broader discretion to waive bars in cases of hardship.
   

Police in Australia have confirmed that the man held in connection with the death of emigrant Kenny Meyler is also Irish.

Today's top Irish news stories:
 

The average age of Irish emigrants has risen according to new statistics which show that thirty-somethings are leading the exodus from the economically crippled country.

I’m a girl who loves her space. I like having my own bedroom, my own quiet time to play guitar where no one can hear me, to walk down a street without having to swim through a sea of people, and regular doses of scenic mountains. So, why oh why, you might ask, would I voluntarily come to a place where nearly twice the entire population of Ireland could fit, where I share a bedroom and live in an apartment you couldn’t swing a cat in.

One in four Sub-Saharan Africans living in Ireland suffered abuse in the past year, according to a new report that warned of racial profiling by Irish police officers.

Background: A New York City firefighter, Brian Downey was named as the 2013 Aisling Irish Center Bachelor of the Year at an event in Gaelic Park in the Bronx on Saturday night.

I am a youngin’, fresh out of a college that provided housing for all four years, so this is my first time signing a lease, having a landlord, and being responsible for setting up all the systems I have always taken for granted. I know that moving is a serious pain for everyone, but I can’t help but wonder: is it this hard because I’m a first-timer, or particularly because it’s Ireland? It has to be a bit of both.

One month after the death of Rehma Sabir, the baby who was cared for by Cavan native Aisling McCarthy Brady, the Irish nanny will appear in a Boston court to hear the charges against her.

The majority of US citizens think that undocumented immigrants in the United States should be deported, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.

Young Irish immigrants in Australia are queuing for food at a Perth Soup Kitchen, according to Australian news reports.

Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore has been calling American politicians hoping to put the pressure on to create a deal in the US for illegal Irish immigrants.

Background: A Sunnyside, Queens resident, Fiona O’Loughlin is originally from Ennis, Co. Clare. She moved to the U.S. to pursue an acting career.

Hello New York. I hope things are shaping up nicely for the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. I know some of the parades are about to kick off this coming weekend so have fun. 

90-year-old illegal Irish immigrant Josephine Stout, who had been living in the U.S. since she was a toddler in the 1920s, passed away on Monday just a few weeks before officially becoming an American citizen.

180 years after his apparent murder, one of Duffy’s Cut victims, John Ruddy’s, remains are to be moved from the suburban Philadelphia all the way to his home county of Donegal in Ireland to be laid to rest.

A young immigrant from Co. Kerry is recovering in a Sydney hospital after being the latest victim of a vicious assault down under.

As part of their literature and humanities programme the Irish Arts Center will play host to two nights of political cabaret. The evenings will feature Irish economist David McWilliams, President Obama’s "Car Czar" and MSNBC Morning Joe economic analyst Steven Rattner and Executive Director of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant's Rights Angela Fernandez as well as RTE's Late Late Show House Band front-man Paddy Cullivan.