Sir, – The article on the situation faced by undocumented migrants in Ireland and the US was timely and informative (Simon Carswell, "Anger among Irish as Trump ends protections for undocumented youth", News, August 6th).
The hypocrisy of the State on this issue is unacceptable but unsurprising. As founding member and former executive director of the Irish International Immigration Centre in Boston, I witnessed first-hand the struggles faced by undocumented migrants who live in, work in and contribute to American society but are systematically denied their rights as residents. While it is right to regard the revocation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) with disgust, it is important to remember that here in Ireland no similar scheme has ever been in place for undocumented minors or adults.
After retirement I returned to Ireland and I continue to work with undocumented people in a voluntary capacity.
This experience has confirmed for me that Ireland treats undocumented people with the same lack of compassion and unjust immigration system that it criticises the US for upholding and creating. Since the 2004 referendum on the 27th Amendment of the Constitution, children born in this country no longer have the right to Irish citizenship. This change, coupled with a visa system focused on providing temporary and easily exploitable migrant labour to Ireland, has resulted in thousands of undocumented families living here. At best, families in this situation face a life of uncertainty, and at worst forced removal from the State.
While Irish Government efforts to work for the security of undocumented Irish migrants in the US are very laudable, they lack ideological consistency unless comprehensive immigration reform occurs here in Ireland. Pursuing the interests of the undocumented Irish while criminalising undocumented people in Ireland is both hypocritical and discriminatory. In a letter from jail, Martin Luther King jnr told us that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. The Irish Government would do well to bear this in mind when addressing the issues faced by undocumented people. – Yours, etc,
Sr LENA DEEVY,
Ballymun,
Dublin 9.