The Daily Star Ireland
The day after Donald Trump was re-elected, pledging the largest deportation effort in US history, the Emerald Isle Immigration Center in Queens, New York, was inundated with calls. John Stahl, the Director of Immigration Legal Services at the center, noted that both legal and undocumented immigrants were fearful, particularly due to the stricter enforcement talk.
Undocumented individuals are slower to seek help and are vulnerable to scammers offering fake green cards for large sums of money. Stahl advises them to get legal counsel to understand their status and prepare for potential arrest and deportation. This includes considerations like securing Irish passports for children if leaving as a family or appointing guardians if the children stay in the US.
One undocumented immigrant, living in a New York City suburb for over 20 years, shared his story under the alias Sean. His US-born children are citizens, but he and his wife, also undocumented, can’t risk traveling back to Ireland. The most painful memory for Sean is not being able to attend his mother’s funeral.
Reliable estimates of undocumented Irish in the US range from 10,000 to 50,000. Efforts by the Irish Government and US Congress members to secure amnesty or additional visas have largely been unsuccessful. A recent attempt to allocate visas from the E-3 scheme for Australia to Irish citizens was defeated by a single vote from Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Trump ally. With Trump’s re-election, chances of reviving this measure are slim.
Some analysts believe the new administration will focus on deporting criminals, but Fiona McEntee, managing attorney at McEntee Law Group in Chicago, disagrees. She points to past executive orders and campaign promises to deport all undocumented immigrants, predicting chaos again in January.
Mass deportations have a history in US politics. Barack Obama deported three million people during his presidency, George W. Bush deported around two million post-9/11, and Trump deported 1.5 million in his first term. Trump’s current plan aims to surpass these records.
Undocumented immigrants are integral to several sectors of the US economy, including food production, agriculture, and manufacturing. A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that in 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes. These contributions support social safety net programs that immigrants themselves cannot access due to their status.
Sean believes US employers knowingly hire undocumented workers, despite their status, because of the tax contributions they make. Employers and the treasury turn a blind eye to this hypocrisy, accepting taxes from those who aren’t supposed to be in the country.
As Trump’s return to the White House looms, Sean remains relatively unfazed, questioning the worst possible outcome as being sent back home.
