Madam, - Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern is quite right when he says the situation of Irish illegal immigrants in the US is not comparable to that of Afghan asylum seekers in Ireland.
If the Irish illegals in the US were deported to Ireland they would return to a peaceful and prosperous country. If the Afghan asylum seekers in Ireland are deported to Afghanistan they will return to an occupied country devastated by years of war, where poverty and ill-health are widespread.
It is clear which set of migrants must be allowed to remain in their adopted country. - Yours, etc,
DAVID O'CALLAGHAN, Inglewood Drive, Clonsilla, Dublin 15.
Madam, - Dermot Ahern is beginning to speak the same incomprehensible garbage as his namesake. How can "illegal Irish immigrants" be "entitled to be in America"?
That elected representatives of this country can spout this kind of rubbish is shameful. - Yours, etc,
DERMOT SWEENEY, Viking Harbour, Dublin 8.
Madam, - Dermot Ahern must be living in cloud-cuckoo land if he only "supposes" that illegal Irish immigrants in the US are indeed illegal. (Plight of illegal Irish in US not same as Afghans here - Ahern ; May 25th). What is it about the word "illegal" that Mr Ahern doesn't understand?
I am an American who has lived in Ireland since 2001. I came into this country legally, as the fiancée of a British citizen who is also here legally and whom I married in 2002. We own a house, are gainfully employed, and pay taxes here. My daughter, who was 11 when we came here, is now 16. Just before her 16th birthday, to comply with Irish immigration regulations, we applied through the local Garda station for her residency. We complied with all documentary requirements, including a letter from her school which stated her student status here through June 2008. Her passport and two photographs were also duly sent along. It so happens, by the way, that my daughter is black.
This young woman, who has been an exemplary student and resident here since sixth class, was given a one year "student visa" by the Department of Justice. This allows her only to attend school and bars her from holding a job in this country, a very difficult situation for a teenager for whom Ireland is "home" and who would like to take up summer employment.
On contacting officials at the Justice Department about what we surely felt must be a mistake, we were informed that these decisions are made on a "case-by-case" basis since immigration law was "tightened" and that if we wanted our daughter's situation reviewed, we would have to submit a large number of further detailed documents.
Frankly, we do not understand this request as we have done everything necessary already to comply with Irish law by following all immigration regulations to the letter.
If EU citizens and their families can be treated in this way, what hope is there for Afghans, or anyone else seeking to make Ireland their home, to get a fair hearing? The illegal Irish are "entitled" to be in America, according to Mr Ahern. What about legal immigrants to Ireland? - Yours, etc,
KATHERINE DAVIES, Radharc na Rún, Spiddal, Co Galway.
Madam, - I find myself increasingly frustrated and even bewildered by the Government support being proffered so freely to the 50,000 undocumented Irish in the United States when no steps are being taken to address the plight of the undocumented living in Ireland. There are thousands of immigrants currently living undocumented: people seeking refugee status; people seeking humanitarian status; and economic migrants who have become undocumented due to no fault of their own. The 50,000 Irish living in the United States and the many thousands of immigrants living here are all seeking the same precious commodity - a legal status.
The undocumented Irish in the US are quite fortunate: they have the full support of the government of their country of origin; they are fleeing neither political persecution nor fear of death; and most importantly, they have a voice which is being heard, and which speaks the same language as their country of adoption. Compare this with the thousands of undocumented here in Ireland.
There is in my eyes no tangible difference, bar race, between the thousands of undocumented immigrants here, and the 50,000 undocumented in the United States. How can our leaders fail to see this simple truth? How can they be imploring and pressuring the US senate to document 50,000 Irish, yet refuse to even listen to 41 Afghans? And one must wonder whether the US senate is aware of the duplicitous approach of the Irish Government. - Yours, etc,
JEANNE BOYLE, The Cottages, Castleknock, Dublin 15.