Irish avoiding GAA matches in the US as numbers of undocumented sent to detention centres is rising, says lawyer

by PoppedCork

18 comments

  1. *New York lawyer Brian O’Dwyer said he is aware of Irish people being quietly detained and deported.*

    *Many of those affected were detained while attending routine appointments with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where they had been reporting under deferred action arrangements as part of efforts to ­regularise their status.“*

    *The ICE people are slipping the cuffs on them and sending them off to detention in preparation for deportation,” said Mr O’Dwyer, a prominent advocate for immigration rights.*

  2. Not particularly sympathetic. You’ve had years to either get legal or leave.

  3. If any of them decided to overstay on their visa, or otherwise not bother to try and make sure they’re in the country legally, then I don’t exactly have all that much sympathy for them.

    Irish people don’t get a pass just because they’re white Europeans.

  4. There’s two comments so far and they ain’t the vibe.

    Getting ”legal” as one said in the US isn’t as straight forward as you’d think. The process can take years and be costly. It sounds like these people have been engaged with officials in order to follow the rules and do what the commenters are saying.

    Yet the ISSE are detaining them when they arrive to their appointments trying to follow the rules….

    Have some compassion for your fellow man

  5. Funny how it’s undocumented for the Irish, but illegal immigrants for anyone else. Funnier still is complaining about mistreatment, but which is ok when meted to people of colour.

  7. I remember about 25 years ago someone suggesting to me that I give it a go in America, overstay a tourist a visa and get hooked up with a cash job through contacts there. My life in Ireland at the time wasn’t all that great, I was single with little to no commitments. I would have had a great time, worked, partied, the whole shebang. But I just dismissed the idea straight away. This was before 9/11 when they started joining up all of the databases and catching illegal immigrants more easily. But still I was afraid of the idea of building any kind of life there, loving it and always being under the threat of it being taken away. As a young guy barely out of school I could appreciate that reality.

    Every Irish person who worked illegally in the US, on some level, knew this was a possibility. They dismissed it or downplayed it or went into denial about it, but they made a choice. And yeah, now some people are trying to regularise their status in a legal way and having the rug pulled out from under them, but they are in this situation primarily because of their own choices. I just find it hard to feel sorry for people who knowingly put themselves in this bind and then expect someone to advocate for them.

  8. My in-laws cousin is an American immigration lawyer.

    I spoke with him briefly on St Patrick’s Day just gone and he said he’s never seen things so bad.

    He’s retired but is taking on cases where clients have been wrongly detained. He said ICE agents are aggressively picking people off the streets regardless of their legal status.

  9. I know a few in New York .. they support trump – so fucking stupid

  11. Laws and conventions we operate on wete made post WWII, they are simply not fit for purpose in 2025 anymore. World has changed since.
    One thing will however, never change, humans moving and trying to find better place to survie and thrive.

    There are attempts such as Dublin III Regulation….but this is global issue and will only grow. Gone are the days where you could simply close the border and thats it.

    I remember years and years ago Italian and Greek giving warnings and asking for help…way before rivier of people started arriving post Arab Spring…

  12. Illegals not undocumented. Plenty of opportunities for them in Ireland 

  13. This definitely won’t bring out the closet fascists in this sub

  14. “Says lawyer” is doing a lot of hard lifting here, says most are picked up by appointments

  16. If you followed the process and are a law abiding citizen then you have nothing to worry about. If you entered illegally, then you deserve all that comes to you.

    Why do they think they have the right to skip the Visa process? Ego or brazen neck?

  18. Can we stop using ‘undocumented’ and call them what they are: illegal immigrants. Other than being white, they’re the same. We don’t use ‘undocumented’ here in Ireland. The Irish in America illegally are not a special case and, as another post said, Irish Americans voted for Trump.

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