Outgoing Taoiseach Takes Another Swing at ILIR

You would think, well I would anyway, that the outgoing Taoiseach would have more important things to do than take another swing at the ILIR. But that's what happened in New York again this week with an Op-Ed penned by Bertie Ahern appearing in both the Irish Echo and the Irish Voice. The ILIR rallied to get in a response which you can read here

However, the real loser in all this are the people like my sister and her husband who are stranded in a no-man's land. They are at their wits' end and there is no help in sight. It beggars belief that the outgoing Taoiseach can not find something more constructive to do than try and smear the people who have been doing the most to find a solution.

Time to go to San Francisco?

A series of new television and radio commercials, billboards and bus shelter signs will soon go up around San Francisco advertising the fact that the city promises safe access to city services for the undocumented and a don't-ask-don't-tell policy when it comes residency status.

"We are standing up to say to all of our residents: We don't care what your status is," Mayor Gavin Newsom said. "We care that you, as a human being, are a resident of our city and we want you to participate in the life of our city."

The campaign precedes the city's plan in August to begin issuing municipal identification cards to city residents - regardless of whether they are in the country legally. Officials said they not only want immigrants to know about San Francisco's sanctuary city policy, they want city workers, business owners and others to know the same.

"We're taking a big bite of the reality sandwich in admitting that there are people who live here who may or may not have citizen status," said Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who helped spearhead the ad campaign and who represents the city's heavily Latino Mission District.

Police Chief Heather Fong said officers will report undocumented immigrants if they have a felony arrest, but otherwise, "we do not work on enforcing immigration laws."

Read the full story here. Picture shows Mayor Newsom with Fr Brendan McBride from the Irish Immigration Pastoral Center at an ILIR event in San Francisco.