United States:Undocumented immigrants in the United States, including thousands from Ireland, received a fresh blow yesterday when New York governor Eliot Spitzer withdrew a plan to give drivers' licences to illegal immigrants.
Mr Spitzer, who has seen his popularity plummet since unveiling the proposal two months ago, yesterday acknowledged that he had misjudged public sentiment on the issue.
"There is not the support for it. To continue to battle for it in that context would be counterproductive. We look forward, as you heard from everybody, to try to encourage action at the federal level, having a conversation that will have the right tone and thoughtfulness to it," he said.
Mr Spitzer had argued that, in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform at a federal level, giving illegal immigrants drivers' licences would improve road safety and give New York officials a better idea of who was in the state.
Republicans seized on the proposal as offering a form of amnesty to illegal immigrants and Democrats lost seats in local elections in upstate New York last week, partly on account of the immigration issue.
Joseph Bruno, the Republican majority leader in New York's state senate, said Mr Spitzer had taken too long to back down from a proposal that New Yorkers did not want.
"Despite an uprising from average citizens and elected officials at every level - local, state and federal - he insisted upon ploughing ahead for months. Ultimately, it took an uprising from within his own party to force him to back down today.
"As we have said from day one, this plan was a danger to public safety and security, was overly expensive to taxpayers and its implementation would have been a bureaucratic nightmare," said Mr Bruno.
Mr Spitzer said that, despite yesterday's climbdown, the issue of how to treat an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the US would not go away.
"The issue will not be gone tomorrow or next week in the absence of federal legislation. I hope I don't need to raise it again, because I hope you will see a comprehensive resolution of this issue," he said.
Immigration reform campaigners have suffered a succession of setbacks in recent months, notably the defeat of legislation that would have allowed the children of some immigrants to remain in the US to attend college and the withdrawal of a proposal to legalise some farm workers near the Mexican border.
Irish immigration reform campaigners have long regarded the two measures as key tests of the appetite in Congress for any liberalisation of immigration laws. There now appears to be little appetite in Congress for any move to make life easier for illegal immigrants and the prospects of a special deal for the Irish appear dim.
The New York drivers' licence plan would have helped many Irish illegal immigrants who work as private building contractors and who need to be able to drive to operate their business.