Undocumented Irish in US are told not to panic about Trump's return

A well-known leader in the Irish American community in New York has said undocumented Irish people living in the United States should not make "drastic moves" ahead of President Donald Trump taking office for the second time later this month.

Louisburgh native Ciaran Staunton is a founding member of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform and has been campaigning for the undocumented Irish for many years. Mr Staunton told the Western People that undocumented Irish people living in the United States should not panic about President Trump’s return to the White House in the coming weeks despite promises by the incoming president that he plans to detain and deport large numbers of people living illegally in the United States. 

“People should not be making drastic moves based on recent headlines," said Mr Staunton. "The new incoming immigration ‘tsar’ has the job of mass deportations but there are 700,000 illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds in the United States. They will be the target of this administration,” he said.

“Trump has a huge mandate. He has the House and the Senate under Republican control but again, the target is the criminal element and that will take a long time to deal with.

“We came through this before. People should not go saying this is all over because he is back in again.” 

Mr Staunton said there has been a lot of scaremongering around this issue.

“Some immigration lawyers who know nothing but want to get themselves some clients have been doing a bit of scaremongering and people should not react to this,” he said.

“Families in Ireland with relatives here would read that kind of nonsense and get worried. No one should be packing their bags or uprooting their family because some lawyer is looking for headlines or clients.” 

Mr Staunton advised anyone who is in a position to secure legal status to make strides in doing so.

“For people who are in that position and want to get legal, the most important thing is to hire a good attorney to do so,” he said. “I often say an attorney is like a sheepdog, there is nothing worse than a bad one and nothing as cheap as a good one.”