A few days ago Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated from coast to coast.
The day that's in it is a gift from Ireland, more specifically immigrants who made the perilous passage across the Atlantic in search of hope and new life.
The gift has lasted despite the fact that the Atlantic immigrant passage has not.
Sure, the planes crossing the ocean from Ireland to the United States are full with people heading for a range of U.S. cities.
They are full for varied reasons.
Immigration is very rarely one of them.
This is a hard time for the story of immigration to America.
It is a hard time for immigrants be they migrants, refugees, and even green card holders.
Naturalized citizenship is not the sure fire guarantee it once was.
The Trump administration's view of immigration is well understood.
Stephen Miller and Vice President JD Vance are the town criers when it comes to putting up roadblocks to the arrival of people from around the world.
For the Irish specifically the obstacles to legal immigration well predate Trump one and two.
The 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act, conceived by President Kennedy and signed into law by President Johnson, closed the door on any significant Irish movement westward from, say, Ballina to Boston.
The '65 act, according to its cheerleaders, would change virtually nothing but in fact it changed just about everything.
National quotas went out the window and were replaced by a system based heavily on family reunification.
There has been debate and argument over the nature of immigration ever since.
But in more recent years the focus has been a good deal less on manner than on raw numbers: numbers of undocumented and illegal in the country; numbers of people who should be permitted legal entry to the U.S. on an annual basis.
Vance and Miller are ardent believers for deporting the former and restricting the latter.
Vance, who had us believe that Haitian immigrants dine on their pets, is of the view that illegal immigrants are not so much a contributor to the U.S. economy as a threat to it, this despite broad evidence to the contrary.
Vance, presumably, will be pleased to see the latest numbers on legal immigration given that he is so much in favor of reducing it.
The U.S., according to the Washington Post, issued about a quarter million fewer visas in the first eight months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, as the Trump administration introduced policies that have reshaped who comes to the United States legally.
Reported the Post: "From January to August 2025, the State Department approved 11 percent fewer permanent resident and temporary visas compared with the same period a year before, according to State Department data released in early March.
"These visas are generally issued for students, workers, and family members of citizens and legal residents.
The 11 percent drop doesn’t include tourist visas, which also fell during the same period.
"India and China bore the brunt of the visa declines.
The U.S. issued many fewer temporary visas to international students, cultural exchange visitors, and fiancés and spouses of U.S. citizens from those countries and beyond.
"Visa approvals for permanent residency — known as green cards — also declined, with the largest drops in visas for workers, certain relatives, and Iraqi and Afghan nationals who worked with the U.S. military.
Most nations sent fewer immigrants to the United States.
In a group of 61 countries with at least 5,000 visa approvals from January to August 2024, just seven received more visas in 2025 than the year before."
Suffice it to say the Irish have not suffered a decline for the simple reason there is nothing to decline from.
Added the Post: "The Trump administration’s travel ban, a pause on student visa interviews and heightened vetting requirements have all played a role in dampening visa figures.
Plus, fewer State Department workers were available to process visas due to federal government cuts.
"The preliminary visa data helps paint a fuller picture of immigration declines in the United States.
For the first time in at least half a century, more immigrants left the country than entered last year," this according to estimates released by Brookings Institution.
In an ironic turn some of those departing the United States headed for Ireland where they doubtless celebrated this year's Saint Patrick's Day.
Ireland's gain, America's loss.
