Washington: The Taoiseach has said there can be no special deal for undocumented Irish immigrants in the US separate from a comprehensive immigration reform.
Speaking in Washington after a meeting with senator John McCain, Mr Ahern said the Government was putting all its effort into supporting an immigration bill sponsored by Mr McCain and senator Edward Kennedy.
"The Irish are just a small part of a very large problemAt the end of the day, a patchwork solution usually never ends up right, and a comprehensive solution will not only solve it for now but will solve it for the future," Mr Ahern said.
Mr McCain, whose bill would offer America's 11 million illegal immigrants a path to US citizenship, said he would be reluctant to back any special arrangement for the tens of thousands of illegal Irish immigrants.
"I would be very hesitant to start carving out groups. I would much rather focus all my attention on a comprehensive settlement because if we start carving out, there are people from Poland here, there are people from Ukraine, there are people from other countries."
The US Senate will debate immigration reform this month. However Congress is divided on the issue, with many Republicans favouring tough measures against illegal immigrants and opposing what they see as an amnesty for people who have broken the law.
Mr McCain said the suffering and exploitation of illegal immigrants made changing the system a moral imperative.
"They're exploited on a routine basis in many parts of our country. But they're human beings. They deserve the same rights as a citizen does and right now they're not getting themI'd like to be able to say that our Irish citizens who are here illegally are not being exploited. I can't tell you that. They are."
Senator Patrick Leahy suggested they were making progress towards a satisfactory resolution of the immigration issues in Senate Judiciary Committee discussions.
He said they had spent yesterday morning working on the immigration issue, as they had on several other days.
"We broke off discussions today on a very hopeful note," he said, and more work would be done on the issue next week.
Mr Kennedy thanked the Taoiseach for endorsing the immigration reform bill sponsored jointly by himself and Mr McCain.
In a speech to the American Ireland Fund dinner in Washington last night, Mr Ahern asked Irish-Americans to do what they could to support immigration reform.
"We now have a new generation of Irish who have come to America. They have come by choice. They have come to work hard and to make a contribution.
"We are concerned about the circumstances of the undocumented section of that community. We hope that a path may be found to enable these people to legalise their status so that they can participate fully in life here."