Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Mr. Groves on his appointment and I know he will do an excellent job. I support my colleague, Senator Ardagh, in her comments on establishing a task force for the undocumented Irish living in the United States. There are 50,000 of them over there now and at home, for each of those people, there are ten people who are worried for their futures. That represents 10% of the population of this island with somebody in the United States currently facing deportation.

President Trump's executive order singled out the Muslim community. It is the headline we are hearing and it is truly appalling. It is sectarian and racist, and it is meant to be so. On the campaign trail he promised he would target Muslims and ban them. This is nothing to do with terrorism but rather to do with people's religion. In the small print and of particular concern to the undocumented Irish, he has ordered the hiring of 15,000 extra enforcement officers. He has told the people in "sanctuary cities", such as San Francisco and Boston, that they can no longer have a system whereby law enforcement officers are not allowed to ask about anyone's immigration status. They must now start asking about the immigration status of anybody they question about a particular crime or even something as small as running a red light.

In fairness to Mr. Martin Walsh, Mayor of Boston, he has stood up to President Trump and stated he will not implement this instruction, as have many other mayors throughout the United States. President Trump stated he would only get rid of criminals in the undocumented 11 million people but his definition of "criminal" has again broadened, which means all 11 million people could quite easily fall within the scope of those to be deported. There will be no comprehensive immigration reform Bill in the United States any time soon, or at all, but we were very close with the McCain-Kennedy Bill in 2007. The Senate passed a Bill by 68 votes to 32 in 2013 that would have given 10,500 visas to the Irish. I know Senator Lawless and Mr. Ciaran Staunton of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform worked very hard on that.

We are asking for a task force because we have spoken with people in the Irish-American community over there. We have spoken with people in the pastoral centres in New York, Boston and San Francisco, and they will need resources to help those who are arrested. They will need counselling resources for those who are finding themselves isolated and fearful for their future. We need a task force to ensure the resources are provided for the Irish-American community, including those 50,000 people under the threat of deportation at any moment.