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Illegal Irish Immigrants in the USA: What can Be Done?

  • 02-03-2017 11:15PM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 14,956 ✭✭✭✭


    I was just watching a Prime Time report on the illegal Irish in the USA - those who travelled to the US and got work there and stayed there but are now "undocumented" and whose fate is now very precarious under the new Trump administration that has vowed to rid the US of "illegal aliens." Two women interviewed were very upset - one could not go back to Ireland for her mother's funeral and another has two children, both born in the USA.

    What do you think should be done? Should there be an amnesty for illegals or should they be deported? Is it making Ireland sounding just a bit hypocritical with respect to our own immigration laws which are allegedly strict? Should the USA only be cracking down on illegal immigrants with criminal records? Or is it just tough for the illegals - that they should be rooted out and forcibly deported?

    Apparently a number of "sanctuary cities" in America such as Boston and San Francisco have been at complete loggerheads with the Federal authorities over the issue of illegal immigrants. The authorities allege the city mayors are felons for allowing illegals to live in thier cities and the city mayors say that trying to criminalise their blind eye approach to immigrants is unconstitutional.

    Thoughts?


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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    if they're there illegally they're there illegally

    they are breaking the law and therefore should be deported...we wouldn't hesitate in doing it in this country


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,547 ✭✭✭✭Poor Uncle Tom


    All adding to the Black Market Economy, they should be sent back home and do things right. Stop sponging and pay your feckin taxes like every legitimate person. Illegals are not a downtrodden minority, they are side stepping spongers who are costing everyone else.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 398 ✭✭DanMurphy


    Unless...a cheap crystal bowl of shamrock buys them another year.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,597 ✭✭✭dan1895


    I don't envy their situation or want to see them deported but it's a situation of their own doing and should the US government want to deport them then so be it. We have no right to say otherwise and I genuinely don't understand the campaigning on their behalf.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,547 ✭✭✭✭Poor Uncle Tom


    JupiterKid wrote: »
    Two women interviewed were very upset - one could not go back to Ireland for her mother's funeral........

    Sensationalist crap, of course she can come back to Ireland for her mother's funeral, she just won't get back into the country she is now in illegally afterwards. I've no sympathy in this case because of the spin.....


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,275 ✭✭✭Your Face


    They took the chance.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,315 ✭✭✭mynamejeff


    given that they come from a country with a long history of terrorism they should be returned to their country of origin with immediate effect

    o wait .......


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,083 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    They should start taking responsibility for their own situations and move to a country where they have a right to be. Shouldn't be up to the government to deport them.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 366 ✭✭madanall


    They are in another country illegally. They should be sent home .


  • Posts: 5,094 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    All adding to the Black Market Economy, they should be sent back home and do things right. Stop sponging and pay your feckin taxes like every legitimate person. Illegals are not a downtrodden minority, they are side stepping spongers who are costing everyone else.

    Er, as Prime Time made clear, despite their illegal status Uncle Sam has very kindly ensured they have a "loophole" which means they must pay taxes.


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  • Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 36,496 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    fryup wrote: »
    if they're there illegally they're there illegally

    they are breaking the law and therefore should be deported...we wouldn't hesitate in doing it in this country

    It's a nation of squatters, Chuck them all out.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,934 ✭✭✭ballyharpat


    I lived illegally for 11 years in America, I knew the whole time I was there, I could be deported at any time if I ran into the wrong cop.
    That was my decision, I would have liked at the time to have gotten legal, but I was breaking the law and had no one to blame but myself if I was deported.

    I was, however, paying taxes over there, and I started up my own company as well. However, I was not able to drive legally over there.

    I agree, we should not be treated any different than any other nationality, we are not special-well-in that respect anyway-our personalities on the other hand, are definitely special :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,547 ✭✭✭✭Poor Uncle Tom


    Er, as Prime Time made clear, despite their illegal status Uncle Sam has very kindly ensured they have a "loophole" which means they must pay taxes.

    Er, no, that is a very small percentage of illegals....


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,934 ✭✭✭ballyharpat


    Er, as Prime Time made clear, despite their illegal status Uncle Sam has very kindly ensured they have a "loophole" which means they must pay taxes.


    For the most part, it's up to yourself to make a decision to pay taxes or not, unless you have your own business. You cannot, legally be hired as an employee over there, you are illegal.
    Bar workers, construction workers etc, for the most part, pay zero tax.

    I wanted to do it, because if there ever was an amnesty, they most likely would want to see a paper trail of your income and where you were living at a particular time.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 33,782 ✭✭✭✭RobertKK


    People knew they were illegal when they decided to abuse their tourist visa/ESTA, and the 90 day limit.
    All illegals have committed a criminal act.

    What can be done?
    Deported and a process for proper residency if they want to move back to the US.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,547 ✭✭✭✭Poor Uncle Tom


    Er, as Prime Time made clear, despite their illegal status Uncle Sam has very kindly ensured they have a "loophole" which means they must pay taxes.

    Please have a read.....
    In the last presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Clinton said that “half of all” illegal immigrants in the U.S. “actually pay federal income tax.” PolitiFact, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fact check organization, investigated Clinton’s claim and reported: “While there is no official figure, experts estimate that about half of all undocumented workers pay federal income taxes, if not more.”

    In reality, the polar opposite is true. Federal government data shows that while roughly half of illegal immigrants file federal tax returns, the vast majority of them don’t pay any federal income taxes. Instead, they use these returns to claim refundable tax credits, which are a form of cash welfare. In other words, illegal immigrants mainly use the federal income tax code to collect money from U.S. citizens.

    http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/james-agresti/about-61-million-illegals-filed-taxes-us-many-didnt-pay-received-refunds


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 696 ✭✭✭Noddyholder


    It was sad looking at the poor woman all the same, but there no different than a Mexican or any other illegal emigrant there. There caught there out, just like we do it here, Over 4000 deported from Ireland last year...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,800 ✭✭✭Senna


    JupiterKid wrote: »
    - one could not go back to Ireland for her mother's funeral

    So her mother died and she decided that it wasn't important enough to go back for the funeral because she likes her life as an illegal immigrant, and we are meant to feel sorry for her.

    Also, the term undocumented, they didn't just misplace their documentation, they are illegal immigrants, talk about trying to put a pretty bow on a turd


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,934 ✭✭✭ballyharpat



    While I don't dispute that they don't pay taxes-They also cannot claim tax refunds. I overpaid my tax one year, I received a letter stating I was due a refund. I rang them, they processed my number and said, thank you for paying your taxes, you're not supposed to be working in this country, do you really want us to issue you a refund? I promptly said, no, thank you, you can keep it, the lady on the phone said have a nice day, and that was that.......


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,517 ✭✭✭TheRiverman


    Senna wrote: »
    So her mother died and she decided that it wasn't important enough to go back for the funeral because she likes her life as an illegal immigrant, and we are meant to feel sorry for her.

    Also, the term undocumented, they didn't just misplace their documentation, they are illegal immigrants, talk about trying to put a pretty bow on a turd

    Well said.I'm sure there are many more in the same situation through their own stupidity.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,786 ✭✭✭wakka12


    Why is illegal immigration becoming this thing that many people feel shouldn't be illegal anymore? Or more so, keep it illegal possibly just to discourage slightly but just don't punish anyone for it


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,444 ✭✭✭✭Skid X


    I don't have any sympathy for them, but equally I'm not keen on thousands of them being dumped back here and having them whining and demanding all kinds of special treatment from our Government.


  • Posts: 5,094 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Senna wrote: »
    So her mother died and she decided that it wasn't important enough to go back for the funeral because she likes her life as an illegal immigrant, and we are meant to feel sorry for her.

    Eh, or else she has a young son, whom she had with a US citizen, and if she came home for the funeral she was very likely never to see him again and if she brought him with her out of the US she could be charged with kidnapping if her ex so wished.

    You didn't watch this, did you.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,547 ✭✭✭✭Poor Uncle Tom


    Eh, or else she has a young son, whom she had with a US citizen, and if she came home for the funeral she was very likely never to see him again and if she brought him with her out of the US she could be charged with kidnapping if her ex so wished.

    You didn't watch this, did you.

    The spin was that she Couldn't come home, when clearly she could. Everything else is just flowers on the spin....


  • Posts: 5,094 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Skid X wrote: »
    I don't have any sympathy for them, but equally I'm not keen on thousands of them being dumped back here and having them whining and demanding all kinds of special treatment from our Government.

    If the million or so Irish citizens (including 7 of my older siblings) did not leave this state in the 1980s the state would have collapsed. And so, too, would the billions upon billions of dollars (much earned from the "criminal" work of illegal Irish) sent back propping up families and communities across Ireland. Emigration has always been the saviour of the ruling elite here and their state.

    So, yeah, next time you try to get smug about the nature of the illegal Irish in the States, compare your contribution to Ireland with theirs.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,558 ✭✭✭✭dreamers75


    Deport its literally the only thing I agree with Trump on.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 945 ✭✭✭red ears


    It is a really tough situation, I felt for that woman talking about her mother dying and she couldn't get home. But on the other hand she is there illegal and should ordinarily be kicked out. But then again how can you kick an 11 year old american child out of america because his mother shouldn't have been there. He was born and raised there.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 21,723 ✭✭✭✭Fred Swanson


    This post has been deleted.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 945 ✭✭✭red ears


    The solution is to make it illegal for an employer to hire someone without papers. Have tough enough penalties so businesses won't risk hiring them.


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  • Posts: 5,094 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    The spin was that she Couldn't come home, when clearly she could. Everything else is just flowers on the spin....

    Actually, as you evidently didn't watch it either, the "spin" was explicitly stated: she could come home for her mother's funeral but it was probable she'd lose her son as a consequence. It isn't some conspiracy against God-fearing patriots.


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