This year's St. Patrick's Day celebrations across the US have taken an unusually political tone. The elephant in the room is that for tens of thousands of Irish men and women, donning green and downing a pint in the land of the free, they do not actually have the legal right to do so on US soil.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has presented US President Donald Trump with the traditional bowl of shamrock to mark St Patrick's Day pic.twitter.com/AHwbguI4IZ
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 17, 2017
The issue came to a head during an an official visit to the US by Irish Premier Enda Kenny, who at a St. Patrick's day luncheon in Washington DC, directly appealed to President Trump.
He wants the estimated 50,000 illegal Irish immigrants in the US to remain, and he wants a deal soon, to allay the anxiety that prolonged uncertainty may entail.
"It would remove a burden for so many people who would say now I am free to contribute to America," Kenny said.
Appealing to both history and compassion, Kenny went on:
"Ireland came to America, because deprived of liberty, opportunity, safety and even food itself, we believed. Four decades before Lady Liberty lifted her lamp we were the wretched refuse on the teeming shore.
"The Irish have built bridges and roads. They have protected the public as firefighters and police officers. They have cared for the sick in hospitals. They have entertained as poets, singers and writers. They became politicians, judges and legislators."
St. Patrick “too, was an immigrant” says @EndaKennyTD at @WhiteHouse Shamrock Ceremony. #StPatricksDay
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) March 16, 2017
Hammering the pro-immigrant message home, Kenny made a pointed topical reminder that St. Patrick was an immigrant too.
"And though he is, of course, the patron saint of Ireland, for many people around the globe, he is also a symbol of, indeed, the patron of immigrants." Kenny told a packed room.
For his part, a smiling Trump responded to Kenny's insistence that the Irish "want to make America great again" by calling the premier "a new friend."
However, the sunny mood at this bilateral meeting is at direct odds with the overtly anti-immigrant messaging of Trump's Presidential campaign, during which he made multiple promises to "deport the illegals."
There are believed to be around 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US, the majority of whom were born in Mexico.
In February 2017, the Trump administration announced new guidelines that would see undocumented people deported to Mexico, even if they are not actually Mexican.
Roberto Campa, head of the human rights department of Mexico's interior ministry, blasted the plan as "hostile" and "unacceptable."
Yet, there are no reports of a single undocumented Irish immigrant being deported so far.
It's true that at roughly 50,000, illegal Irish immigrants make up a small fraction of the US's wider unlawful migration problem.
It's estimated that many undocumented Irish initially entered the US legally on a holiday visa, but then overstayed
Yet, the question still stands, how will Mr. Kenny be able to spare his countrymen the same fate as the Hispanic individuals who have already been removed from the US?
No details of a deal were forthcoming from either leader.
Enda Kenny said that he gave US President Donald Trump a 'detailed account' of the outcome of the NI Assembly Election pic.twitter.com/nnQ1GwtbkA
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 16, 2017
However, Mr. Kenny has been at pains to row back on previous comments made in May 2016, when he criticized the then Republican primary candidate's use of "racist and dangerous language."
He also refrained from condemning Trump's re-vamped so-called "travel ban."
In the meantime, it seems that those who are white, European and undocumented in the US, are likely to have a vastly different experience to those who are darker skinned, Hispanic, and undocumented in the US.
