Mr. Richard Neal:

That is a terrific question. It is also a foreign policy question. The undocumented Irish live in the shadows, as I reminded people when I received an honorary degree at Ulster University not long ago. It is important to understand that there are Irish immigrants who live in America who can never return home for a funeral, first communion or wedding because if they are undocumented they take the risk of not being able to get back into the country. I will give a vivid example, because anecdotes can be powerful, particularly when they are accurate. I was in Holyoke, Massachusetts, part of my constituency that had a large population from Mayo. Springfield had Kerrymen and Holyoke, which is just ten miles away, had a huge population from Mayo, Bellmullet in particular. A woman asked me if she could have a word. I said, "Sure, go ahead" and she said, "Outside". We walked outside and she told me her father was dying and that she would like to go back for the funeral but the risk was that she would not be able to get back into the country. That is the cruelty of what has happened. We were unable to secure passage for her. Zooming a funeral does not make it. We have a challenge in America over the issue of the undocumented, which some estimate is as high as 11 million people. Here is another corresponding part of the argument. It is important to remember that we need them in America. This is a technical economic issue, but this is what the Ways and Means Committee does, because we do economics. The population was announced today by our census bureau at about 332 million Americans, and our birthrate is at about 1.9 per family which is not keeping pace. In order to support many of our social initiatives, including social security and Medicare, we need these people to continue to contribute and they should be able to do so in the light of day, not in the dark of the shadows. Think of it this way. One of the most enduring and successful initiatives in American history has been social security. When someone turns 62 to 69 years, they join this great entitlement based on their years of work. Another part of the cruelty is that many of these individuals in America use false social security cards. They contribute to the social security system but will never be able to derive the benefit under current circumstances. They do their part. I have had many memorable moments and listened to a lot of great speeches. I like to give a few myself, but I recall one by the former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, at a St. Patrick's Day gathering in the Rayburn Room with President Trump, Speaker Pelosi and myself. We were all trying to figure out how the Taoiseach would handle it. He spoke from the heart about the undocumented Irish in America and normalising their capacity. His speech ended with a magnificent line; he said the millions of Irish who sought refuge in America wanted to make America great, too. It brought a thunderous ovation from those of us who understand that right of passage and how difficult it was. When my family left, they never went back. They never went back for funerals, weddings or wakes and I like to think that is one of the reasons they were so devoted to the printed word, because the letters are extraordinary as they described their situations. They then read the letters of parents they would never see again when they left at 18 or 19 years. I hope and expect that this will be one of the first issues President Biden will take up, but I appreciate the question because there are many of them in my constituency.