Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 321: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the progress in relation to reform in US immigrant legislation; and the action being taken to address the concerns of undocumented Irish citizens in the US. [23888/07]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The failure of efforts by the United States Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation earlier this year was a major disappointment and a setback for the thousands of undocumented Irish people in the United States and their families in Ireland. Given the present very difficult and divided environment in Congress on immigration, it is widely considered that such comprehensive legislation is unlikely to be back before Congress in a meaningful way in advance of the next US Presidential and Congressional Elections. In the aftermath of this disappointment, I made clear my determination to actively review the situation and to explore possible alternative options, including bilateral arrangements. In the months since the collapse of the comprehensive reform bill, my Department and the Embassy in Washington have been engaged in a wide range of consultations with Congressional, Administration and Irish community figures to assess how best to proceed.

My recent visit to the United States provided me with the opportunity to discuss the situation with senior members of the Administration and with some of the key central players in Congress. In this regard, among those with whom I had meetings were the US Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, Dr. Paula Dobriansky, Senators Edward Kennedy, Charles Schumer, Patrick Leahy and Lindsay Graham, as well as the House of Representatives Friends of Ireland Group. While they emphasised the present extremely difficult environment for making progress on immigration reform in Congress, I was pleased that they were willing to work with us in exploring further possible ways of resolving the position of our undocumented citizens. This work will be pursued by the Ambassador and his staff in Washington and will be reviewed by me on an ongoing basis.

I also reviewed the situation with the Irish lobby for immigration reform and subsequently briefed it on my discussions in Washington, including the considerable challenges seen by our friends in Congress in achieving a breakthrough at this time. Finally, I had a detailed discussion on the situation with the Secretary for Homeland Security, Mr. Michael Chertoff, and had a meeting with members of our undocumented community in New York.