The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform

[one...two...tree 2,762]

.... (excerpt)

The new Irish dynamic is all the more striking because the Republican Party is fiercely split over immigration, and many Democrats have hung back from the fray, judging the issue too hot to handle in an election year.

"They're still good at the game," said Linda Dowling Almeida, who teaches the history of Irish immigration at New York University. She and other historians noted that in the mid-19th century, Irish immigrants used the clout of urban political machines and leadership by the Roman Catholic Church to beat back a nativist movement that saw them as a threat to national security and American culture.

More recently, Mr. O'Dowd, the publisher of The Irish Voice, was himself part of a lobby that leaned on legislators with Irish heritage to engineer more than 48,000 visas for the Irish, legalizing many who had re-greened old Celtic neighborhoods in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.

But much has changed. After 9/11, a groundswell of anger over illegal immigration converged with national security concerns, propelling a populist revolt across party lines. Immigration is now seen as a no-win issue in electoral politics. And both opponents and supporters of legalization take a more jaundiced view of the Irish role in the debate.

"They're essentially saying, 'Look, we're good European illegal immigrants,' " said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports the House and Senate measures that would turn "unlawful presence," now a civil violation, into a crime. "The reason they've been more successful is the same reason it appeals to editors — immigration nostalgia from 150 years ago."

He added: "Can they be bought off by a special program for a handful of remaining illegals? I'm not saying it's a good idea, but you just start talking about the old sod and singing 'Danny Boy,' and of course it's possible."

http://www.irishlobbyusa.org/press/nytninamar16.php

[Sheriff Uling 3]

Freakin Irish...

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Freakin Irish...

Freaking power of lobbying and nostalgia.

[Kevin and 10]

Blazing Saddles

"We'll give some land to the n___ and the ch____. But we don't want the Irish."

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Blazing Saddles

"We'll give some land to the n___ and the ch____. But we don't want the Irish."

:lol:

[almaty 19]

give ireland to the irish

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Edited November 14, 2007 by Mister Fancypants

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[almaty 19]

[one...two...tree 2,762]

:lol:

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

is this a who would jesus deport pic?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

is this a who would jesus deport pic?

...oh, I thought we were all posting pics of bleeding hearts.

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

is this a who would jesus deport pic?

...oh, I thought we were all posting pics of bleeding hearts.

bleeding hearts.........yes, not hands.