Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

An expression that has often been used in the context of immigration reform is "coming out of the shadows". If people take that first step and go down the road of registering with the social security service, the difficulty is that once they come out of the shadows, they cannot go back in. The changes announced may affect up to 5 million illegal immigrants in the US but what about those who fall outside the criteria? I am thinking, for example, of those who cannot have children, like members of the LGBT community. Has the Minister been given any information regarding the fate of those people who will be left behind in this process?

We were all expecting and hoping for a lot more from President Obama's statement. I do not know what advice was given to the President but he faces a situation currently whereby both the US Congress and US Senate are packed with Republicans. Has the Minister heard any positive messages from the Republicans in the context of coming up with some sort of deal on immigration reform?

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