Ireland's Catholic bishops, Irish immigration centres in the United States and business interests there have welcomed President Barack Obama's executive order on Thursday changing US deportation laws.
The chairman of the Irish Catholic Bishops' Council for Emigrants, Bishop John Kirby, said the bishops were "acutely aware of the human impact on families when relatives are unable to travel to Ireland to see their loved ones, and in particular to visit their ageing parents".
Undocumented emigrants “faced great personal turmoil and pain as they have been prevented from participating in key moments of family life back home such as baptisms, marriages and when a loved one is seriously ill or has died,” he said.
‘Constant fear of deportation’
Meanwhile “their family life existence in the United States has similarly been curtailed by being placed under the daily stress of constant fear of arrest and deportation. The quality of life of the children of our undocumented living in the US has been particularly compromised in this regard.”
He expressed gratitude to the Irish Apostolate USA, the Council for Emigrants’ active arm in the US, which had “worked tirelessly on behalf of our undocumented”. He also thanked “successive Irish governments for their support over many years on this issue and emigrant support more generally.”
Kieran O'Sullivan, of the Irish Pastoral Centre in Boston, said that as he watched the president's speech he was contacted by "the mother of a young US citizen child who has not been home to Ireland in 15 years".
Congress
He pointed out that while the president’s order would “bring relief to many undocumented Irish families, the majority of the undocumented Irish in the US will remain without an option unless Congress acts on comprehensive immigration reform”.
The Coalition of Irish Immigration Centres (CIIC), described Mr Obama’s order as “an important first step towards fixing the currently broken US system”.
It said that “of greatest interest to the Irish community is the president’s plan to allow the parents of US citizen children to apply for work permits and relief from deportation, provided they have lived in the US for five years, are up to date on taxes and have no criminal background”.
CIIC president Celine Kennelly that the coalition was "delighted by President Obama's announcement, as we have been pushing for executive action since the failure of the Senate Bill last year".
The coalition has 11 member organisations, located in California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Wisconsin.
The Illinois Business Immigration Coalition said the president’s action was “a welcome relief to millions of families living in fear, businesses disrupted due to unnecessary deportations, and a national security compromised because we currently do not know who is in our country and for what purpose”.
It said the decision “may help to bring millions of workers out of the shadow, legally entering them into the workforce and strengthen our national security; but, absent legislation, our country’s immigration system remains broken”.
