When Congress set to changing the nature and practice of U.S. immigration laws back in the mid-1960s, the intention was to diversify the annual influx of immigrants. At that time, a system of quotas still applied and it strongly favored European countries, Ireland included.
By the time the 1965 reform act came into force, the Irish were not taking up their annual quota but the effect of the new law was to drastically reduce the number of legal Irish immigrants to the point of negligibility, a negative quota if you will.
In the intervening years, as immigration, quite rightly, became more diverse, the Irish largely watched from the sidelines. The nature of Irish migration to the U.S. meant that very few from the island could take advantage of the new emphasis on family reunification. Most Irish immigrants tended to be single individuals.
Many of these single individuals made tracks for America anyway and would eventually make up the hidden army of the undocumented Irish during the 1980s. Campaigns were waged on their behalf and relief was found, to a degree, in the Donnelly and Morrison visa programs.
But the bigger picture for the Irish has remained bleak. Under current laws, the Irish are largely confined to non-immigrant working visas and a smattering of diversity lottery green cards.
A campaign has been underway for some years now to facilitate more legal Irish immigrants but it has stalled because of the inability of Congress to grasp the nettle of comprehensive immigration reform.
In recent days, however, Congress has grasped the immigration issue, though in a limited way.
In a rare show of unity, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3012, a bill that will allow highly skilled immigrants from several countries, though not Ireland, to gain legal entry to the U.S.
The bill, penned by Representatives Jason Chaffetz, a conservative freshman Republican from Utah, and Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, passed the House by 389 votes to 15.
Wow!
The bill will primarily benefit would-be immigrants from India and China with high level technology skills. It will eliminate limits on the number of green cards based on employment available annually to each of these countries. It will, in effect, establish quotas, albeit with very specific requirements.
The bill also includes a measure that will more than double the green cards based on family ties available for Mexicans and Filipinos, the two national groups facing the longest backlogs on the family side of the legal immigration admission system.
It should be stated that both these initiatives appear both sensible and humane. The U.S. economy needs highly skilled workers. Presumably, Congress feels there are not enough of them available within America's borders, even despite the current sky high unemployment levels.
And if family unification is a cornerstone of the immigration system it is only fair that families don't have to wait entire lifetimes to be actually united.
Nevertheless, if the pre-1965 laws were criticized for being narrowly selective, indeed discriminatory, some are going to sense the same when it comes to H.R. 3012.
The campaign for greater legal access for the Irish, led primarily by the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, has focused in most recent times on securing an E3 visa program for Ireland that would permit a specified number of E3 holders annually. The E3 is a two-year renewable visa that allows family members to accompany the primary visa holder. On Friday Senator Charles Schumer told members of the ILIR that he would add the Irish E3 to the H.R. 3012 bill; if H.R. 3012 fails he will introduce a new bill in which an E3 for the Irish is already included. Things may be looking up.
The E3 program, which already applies to several countries including Australia, does allow for the possibility of ultimate full legalization.
