THIS week there was real human drama inside room 2128 of the Rayburn Building on Capitol Hill, normally the scene of staid banking committee meetings.
Wives sobbed, their children ran around and the several hundred people in the chamber often cheered and sometimes groaned.
At stake was the fate of seven families whose fathers are facing deportation because of past convictions in Northern Ireland for what US law regards as "terrorist" type offences.
The men concerned have been resident for long periods in the US, as long as 21 years in one case. Six of them have US nationality spouses who are reluctant and even afraid to accompany their husbands back to Northern Ireland if deportation goes through because they could be targeted by loyalist gangs.
The men concerned are Noel Gaynor of Lurgan; Robbie McErlean of Bellaghy; Gabriel Megahy, Ardoyne, Belfast; Malt Morrison, Derry; Kevin Crossan, Andersonstown, Belfast; Brian Pearson of Clogher, Co Tyrone, and Charlie Caulfield from Co Monaghan. In most cases they entered the US without admitting to convictions.
The Ad Hoc Congressional Committee for Irish Affairs, which called the hearing, does not have official status in Congress but has existed since 1977 as a forum for members interested in Irish affairs. Its bipartisan nature with Democrats and Republicans gives it a special influence.
It has had hearings on many aspects of the Northern Ireland situation but the deportation issue is a "must" for the three co chairmen who represent New York districts, Ben Gilman, Peter King and Tom Manton. The fourth co chairman, Richard Neal, has also a strong Irish American constituency in Massachusetts.
This week's hearing was an impressive example of the solidarity of Irish Americans behind the deportees, but there was little for them to cheer about in the testimony of David Martin, counsel for the Immigration and Naturalisation Service, as he set out the increasingly stringent laws which, now apply to them.
The fact is that "terrorism", either domestic or international, is an increasingly dirty word in the US. Attempts to portray the IRA's war on the army and RUC in Northern Ireland as the last phase in the "liberation" of Ireland from British rule, and therefore different from Islamic fundamentalists blowing up US installations or aircraft, is simply not recognised in US law.
The irony is that these laws are being passed by those members of Congress to whom the deportees are now appealing and they have voted to make them retroactive, which makes the deportees situation even more desperate. That they have served their sentences' and have successfully settled in the US would, in times past, have entitled them to a waiver against deportation, but not now.
Extradition is not the issue here but if anything the deportation laws are tougher. David Martin summed up the present situation as a highly stringent statutory scheme applicable to persons who meet the broad definition of having engaged in terrorist activity" with virtually no possibility for asylum or other relief from deportation or exclusion".
As in Irish law, the "political offence" exception is virtually gone, although at the hearing some congressmen used expressions such as "the distinction between terrorists and freedom fighters", "can you be deported for what you think?" or "British army of occupation".
The hunt is on for the "exceptions" in the tightly drafted laws through which the deportees might just wriggle. "Would the INS seek the deportation of Nelson Mandela?" if he came to live in the US after being president of South Africa, King asked rhetorically but he made his point and was applauded.
The highly respected Bruce Morrison, one of the architects of the peace process and whose efforts supplied green cards for thousands of Irish emigrants, told the hearing that Congress last year "made a bad situation worse". It was not too late to try and correct it, but would not be easy.
The direct approach to President Clinton is also being pursued. He will probably find a delegation in his Oval Office some time in the future pointing to the results of the hearing and asking for remedial action.
Outside the White House there will probably be a line of children with placards reading: "Don't Deport My Daddy".