Irish Advocates Travel to Capitol Hill for Immigration Lobbying Day
The pro-amnesty group Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) will hold a lobbying day on Capitol Hill on March 12th. Unlike prior ILIR efforts, this one targets just House Republicans who are not in favor of amnesty and legal immigration increases.
ILIR is bringing in Irish Americans from across the country for the lobbying day. “We have a big turnout from many different states,” said ILIR president Ciaran Staunton. “We have people coming from Ohio to meet with their representative, House Speaker John Boehner, and people coming from Virginia to talk to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. We also have activists traveling from Washington, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois and many other states. We’ll all be pressing the same message – the 1965 Immigration Act has got to be changed, no two ways about it. The act denied access to the U.S. for the Irish, and we’re not going to stop until that situation changes.”
Staunton told the Irish Voice ILIR recently surveyed every GOP district and used census data to identify Irish American strongholds. Irish activists in those districts were then encouraged to attend the March 12 effort.
“There is still no line to join in Ireland for people who want to immigrate legally,” Staunton said. “This is the reason that we currently have about 55,000 undocumented Irish in the U.S. 2014 needs to be the year that this fact is addressed once and for all, finally giving the people of Ireland back the access to the U.S. that they had previously.”
Read more in Irish Central.