From The Irish Times:
Former presidential candidate Senator John McCain, a proponent of immigration reform, raised the issue of a temporary worker programme for Irish people.
"One of the aspects of the issue that's important is a legal temporary worker programme, and I think it is vital that we have that, where citizens of Ireland can come to the United States in a legal fashion, work and return to Ireland," he said.
"And reciprocally we could have a situation where an American citizen could be a legal temporary worker in Ireland. I think there's a certain area of reciprocity that we could look forward to," he said.
However, the most pressing issue was the fate of perhaps 15,000 undocumented Irish people, out of an estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the US. Mr Martin raised the issue with senators Lindsay Graham and Patrick Leahy and congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.
The Minister said: "There is a window of opportunity in the springtime. There is work going on behind the scenes . . . we understand, and we accept, that it has to be within the context of a comprehensive response to the issue . . . and we have been in touch with the Hispanic lobby and their representatives in the House and the Senate, and I think there is common ground moving forward on the issue.
“For us it is an important issue, given the fact that a number of Irish people have been undocumented for a very long time and it’s causing real trauma and hardship on families,” he said. It was now clear the Irish immigration issue “will be resolved within the context of comprehensive immigration reform”, along with immigration from Mexico, Mr Martin said.
Illegal Irish? Illegal Mexicans? McCain and Graham? It's as as if ol' Teddy were still alive...
