Woodside,
New York City, Feb 23 - The statement uttered
by Michael Woods, T.D., chairman of the Irish parliament's
Committee on Foreign Affairs, regarding the Sennsenbrenner/King
Immigration Bill H.R. 4437, is highly offensive,
deeply insensitive and totally inappropriate.
On
Feb 19, Michael Woods, T.D., in referring to the
Sensenbrenner/King bill, described the legislation
"as a reaction to 9/11 . . . but this is an
over reaction."
September
11 was not an inconvenient aberration, as Mr. Woods
flippantly implies. It was a cowardly, devastating
attack on the United States, in which thousands
of our citizens died, a good number of them Irish
Americans. It was also a declaration of war on Western
civilization, which, once again, the United States,
as the arsenal of democracy and freedom, bears the
brunt of defending. Mr. Woods should apologize to
those thousands, especially those Irish Americans,
who lost loved ones and friends on that day of infamy.
For
forty years, since the 1965 Kennedy Immigration
Act, U.S. immigration policy has been totally chaotic
and completely at odds with our cultural, economic
and security interests. This emasculating situation
finaly realized its potential on Sept 11, when it
was exploited by Middle Eastern terrorists to plan
and launch their cowardly attack. Investigations,
subsequent to 9/11, which have successfully thwarted
more attacks, have revealed how our dysfunctional
immigration system has been further exploited by
terrorists.
We
are confident that we speak for all Irish American
Republicans, indeed for all Republicans, Conservatives
and conservative Democrats, when we laud Congressman
James Sennsenbrenner of Wisconsin, chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee and Congressman Peter
King of New York, chairman of the House Homeland
Security Committee, for their courage, integrity
and initiative in crafting this excellent piece
of legislation. In this time of war , HR 4437 will
be an indispensable defensive tool. It will go a
long way towards securing our borders, our interior
and in keeping our citizens safe.
It
is highly inappropriate for Mr. Woods, as the representative
of a foreign parliament to attempt to overtly influence
the legislative process of the U.S. Congress, or
to frustrate Americans in our endeavors to protect
our country. As Ireland begins to wrestle with its
own domestic immigration challenges, perhaps Mr.
Woods' constituents should consider the adverse
security implications for them of his flippant and
reckless attitude to the concept of illegal immigration,
in the post September 11 environment.
Mr.
Woods implies that the solution to the illegal Irish
problem is the maintenance of a limbo situation,
where undocumented Irish immigrants are allowed
to continue to exist outside the law, in the netherworld
of illegal status . Unlike Mr. Woods, we believe
that the solution to the problem is legislation
that would correct the discriminatory effects of
the 1965 Kennedy Immigration Act, which effectively
shut the Irish, Italians and Polish and others out
of the United States. Such legislation must also
regularize the status of undocumented immigrants
from those countries and eventually allow them to
enjoy the privileges and assume the obligations
of U.S. citizenship.
Congressman
Peter King, the co-author of HR 4437, is a true
friend of Ireland. Long before the Good Friday Agreement,
Pete King was standing shoulder to shoulder with
the nationalist people of the Northern Irish statelet,
when politicians in Dublin, London and Hyannisport
were running for cover. We are confident that with
sincere friends like Pete King in our corner, we
can resolve the undocumented Irish problem, once
and for all, within the context of restructuring
our immigration policy to address critical U.S.
cultural, economic and security interests. Too many
Irish Americans died on September 11, and have died
in the ongoing war against radical Islam , for us
to accept anything less.
Ultimately,
the undocumented Irish problem is an issue for Irish
Americans, as U.S citizens, to resolve, We appreciate
any support that the Irish Government, or Irish
representatives, can render us, within the parameters
of diplomatic norms, but, ultimately, it is an issue
for American citizens. Inappropriate interventions
like that of Mr. Woods will only hinder rather than
help.
