Undocumented Irish in the USA
Dail Éireann — 2022-03-24
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Denis Naughten (IND), Roscommon-Galway

It is estimated that every parish in Ireland has an average 20 undocumented Irish citizens in the US. In reality there are far more from every parish along the western seaboard and in the west of Ireland. We have a unique opportunity with President Biden and his cabinet, which has more members from the west of Ireland than the Irish Cabinet. We need to use these connections. Many Irish citizens have made the United States their home. They have family, children and good jobs there. They are good citizens contributing to the United States. We need to have a clear legal pathway to regularise the status of our Irish citizens in the United States. The E3 visa is part of this overall mechanism. The progress made on this recently is very positive. I urge the Minister to redouble the efforts to ensure this particular measure passes through Congress and ensure it can get an expeditious passage.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-03-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:50:17+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-03-24