US:Senator Edward Kennedy has abandoned efforts to draft a new comprehensive immigration reform bill that would legalise the status of most of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US, including thousands of undocumented Irish citizens, Denis Stauntonin Washington.
The move came as the Taoiseach arrived in the US for a four-day visit, during which he will discuss immigration reform, among other issues, with President George Bush, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Republican and Democratic legislators.
Mr Kennedy's decision follows disagreements with Republican senator John McCain, with whom he had been working on the new bill, over trade union demands for labour standards to be included in the legislation.
Mr Kennedy is now proposing that a bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last year but later amended in the full Senate should be the starting point for new legislation to reform the immigration system.
Niall O'Dowd, chairman of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR), acknowledged Mr Kennedy's decision was "a setback" that could delay the introduction of immigration reform. He said Irish immigration activists would continue to campaign to ensure any new legislation addressed the concerns of the undocumented Irish.
"The fundamentals for the Irish are that they can travel home, they can get a green card and they can be gainfully employed over here. Those are the three key things," he said.
Some Republicans who supported immigration reform last year have complained in recent weeks that they have been excluded from the latest drafting process. Others claim that the new Democratic majority in Congress is listening too closely to the trade unions that helped to secure last November's election victory.
Mr McCain has taken particular issue with efforts to apply the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires that workers receive local prevailing wages and benefits, to certain provisions in the draft related to guest workers. The prevailing wage is often higher than the average wage and so could attract more American workers to jobs that immigrants might otherwise take.
Democrats will need the support of some Republicans if immigration reform is to succeed and although Mr Bush said this week that he would like to sign a bill by August, new legislation is now unlikely until later in the year.