http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longi ... 3302.story

IRISH IMMIGRANTS

A brogue gets heard in debate

BY BART JONES
Newsday Staff Writer

April 2, 2006

Tony emigrated from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland in 1996, overstayed his tourist visa when it expired and set up a thriving floor installation business on Long Island.

For a decade now, the New Hyde Park resident has been living in the shadows - an undocumented immigrant who can't even get a driver's license. He hires someone to take him around.

"I'm stuck between a rock and hard place, as they would say in Ireland," said Tony, 31. "We're hardworking, decent people. ... We're not terrorists."

Tony, who asked that his last name not be used for fear of deportation, is among 50,000 undocumented immigrants from Ireland, including an estimated 1,000 on Long Island, who are forming unlikely troops in the battle over immigration reform.

Handing out T-shirts that declare "Legalize the Irish," and backed by 250,000 legal Irish immigrants and many thousands of Irish-Americans, they are flexing their political muscle and hosting rallies that attract national political stars such as Sens. John McCain and Ted Kennedy.

The Bronx-based Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, formed only in December, claims credit for getting New York Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton to embrace legalization for the undocumented, positions they announced at rallies organized by Irish groups.

While the two senators say a variety of immigrant groups influenced them, some observers contend the political punch of the Irish is undeniable, even though they make up a small portion of the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants.

"Part of it is they put a face on the issue that to some extent is more amenable to a sort of white middle-class audience," said Patrick Young of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance. "You would like to think that people wouldn't be frightened by a brown face. But you will often find a heart that might be impervious to somebody talking about el pueblo unido will melt when listening to a lilting brogue."

He said Latino and Asian immigrant groups that lobbied for reform for years don't resent the sudden success of the Irish. They simply marvel at their clout and formidable political skills.



Rallies and T-shirts

Irish immigrants - legal and undocumented alike - have held immigration reform rallies recently in Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., where 3,000 came in from around the country on March 8.

After the "Derry Destroyer" John Duddy knocked out Shelby Pudwill in a boxing bout at Madison Square Garden on March 16 and became the WBC Continental middleweight champion, he donned a "Legalize the Irish" T-shirt.

On St. Patrick's Day, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern met with President George W. Bush in the White House and urged him to push for legalization.

"A lot of people are surprised that the Irish are involved in this issue, but we actually have a very significant undocumented population in proportion to the legal Irish-born population," said Niall O'Dowd, head of the Irish immigration lobby.

The lobby is pushing for legalization of the nation's undocumented immigrants - three-fourths of them Latinos - and the creation of a legal mechanism for low-skilled immigrants to come to the United States.

O'Dowd, a Syosset resident who is publisher of the Manhattan-based Irish Voice newspaper, estimates that half the nation's 50,000 undocumented Irish immigrants live in the tri-state area, with the others in cities including Chicago, Boston and San Francisco. Many of the men work in construction, while the women are nannies.

On Long Island, pockets of undocumented Irish immigrants have formed in communities including New Hyde Park, Glen Cove and Long Beach.

Most have come because Ireland's thriving economy is growing mostly in high-tech areas and excluding many low-skilled workers from the boom. Those who decide to emigrate usually come on tourist or student visas they overstay after they expire, O'Dowd said. They don't stay legally because getting a long-term visa or green card is almost impossible for low-skilled workers, no matter where they come from.

The two other groups with significant numbers of undocumented immigrants on Long Island are Italians and Poles, Young said.



Fewer Irish seen coming

The immigration system "is broken, broken very badly," O'Dowd said.

The problems are prompting fewer Irish to come, while others already here like Tony are thinking of going back, he said. The result is Irish strongholds such as Woodlawn in the Bronx, Yonkers in Westchester and Maspeth and Woodside in Queens are dwindling, with local Irish soccer and hurling teams unable to attract enough players, for instance. "You're in danger of losing the Irish in this country," he said.

One politician the Irish have not been able to persuade in their campaign is Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), co-sponsor of a bill passed by the House that would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally, criminalize anyone who assists them and erect a 700-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Some Irish are disappointed if not seething with anger over the position of King, until now a prized ally whose grandparents emigrated from Ireland.

"Peter has probably been the best friend to the Irish we've ever had in Congress," said Eamonn Dorman, a Manhattan-based immigration attorney and a native of County Down who praised King's role in the Northern Ireland peace process. "But on this one occasion, he seems to have parted ways with his former friends and he's not on the side of the angels."

In response, King said in a statement, "Immigration reform is not about, nor directed to, any one particular ethnic group."

Tony said his wife's driver's license expires next year, and they may have to move back to Ireland if immigration laws don't change.

"We have a great life. We love this country," he said. But "the noose is tightening around our throats every day. It's like we're squeezed and squeezed and squeezed slowly out of the country."