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18 July 2006

462 Irish nationals deported from US since 1997

By Harry McGee, Political Editor
A TOTAL of 462 Irish nationals have been deported from the United States in the past eight years, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern confirmed 446 Irish citizens were deported between 1997 and 2005, and his department is aware of a further 16 deported to date this year. Two Irish nationals are currently awaiting deportation from the US.

But Mr Ahern goes on to point out that only 302 of that total were deported for immigration offences.

The information was supplied to Fine Gael TD John Deasy, who had submitted a parliamentary question on the issue.

The average number of deportations for immigration violations works out at a surprisingly low number, about 35 per year. This suggests that the situation facing the so-called undocumented Irish may have eased slightly since the clampdown that occurred after 9/11.

Figures released by the US Department for Homeland Security further disclose that just 43 Irish citizens were deported in 2005. It is not known how many of those were immigration cases.

However, the figures do not take into account the number of Irish people who have been refused admission to the US for violations of visa waivers. There is also overwhelming anecdotal evidence that few of the estimated 50,000 illegal Irish immigrants in the US are prepared to run the gauntlet of returning home for fear that they will be refused entry.

While no figures are available on the number of refusals at Dublin and Shannon airports — as well as ports of entry in the US — US officials have indicated that there was no major increase in refusals since 9/11.

Commenting on the figures, Mr Ahern said he wanted to stress that “there is no evidence of any particular targeting of the Irish undocumented in the US”.

The figures are released as a controversial immigration bill is debated in the US Senate and the US House of Representatives. Many thousands of undocumented Irish have taken part in mass rallies against any legislation that will penalise, or criminalise, illegal immigrants already living in the US.