The future for many immigrant parents of children born in Ireland could depend on the outcome of two cases that open tomorrow in the High Court.
In both cases, the authorities are attempting to deport parents of babies born in Ireland who have been refused the right to apply for asylum here.
Until now, non-nationals who have children born here have generally been granted residency in Ireland, regardless of the success or failure of their asylum applications. But in the two cases that open today, the authorities will try to break this link.
Children born in Ireland automatically become citizens, and the policy of granting residency to their parents stems from a 1990 Supreme Court ruling in the Fajujonu case.
The parents in that case, illegal migrants from Nigeria and Morocco who had lived in the State for about seven years, were allowed to remain here on the basis that their Irish child had the right to the "care, company and parentage" of its parents within the family unit.
Only the interests of the "common good" and "the protection of the State and society" justified any interference with the child's constitutional rights, the court held. In recent years, the numbers of asylum-seekers and irregular migrants applying to remain in the State on the basis of the Fajujonu judgment has increased significantly.
Last year, 2,474 asylum-seekers were granted leave to remain in Ireland on the basis that they were the parents of Irish-born children. This is up from 1,227 in 1999.
Tomorrow's cases involve asylum-seekers who have been in the State for about a year. In both cases, the authorities wish to return the parents to the UK, where their asylum claims have already been refused. Lawyers for the State are likely to argue that it is valid to deport the people, even though they are the parents of Irish citizens, as they have not spent an "appreciable length of time" in the State, as the Fajujonus had.
The cases involve a Nigerian father and the Czech parents of baby boys born in Ireland. It will also be argued that it is in the "common good" for the parents to be returned to the UK under the rules of the Dublin Convention. Lawyers for both families are expected to argue that they cannot be deported as their Irish children are entitled to have their parents remain in Ireland to care for them.
The outcome of tomorrow's cases will have important implications for hundreds of other parents whose claims for refugee status are currently being processed or have failed.
The Department has not said how it would care for a child born here if the rest of his or her family is deported and chooses not to bring the child with them.