Illegal Immigrant Wave : When Irish Eyes Are Hiding . . .

Every year, New York throws a St. Patrick’s Day party the likes of which Tommy never saw back in his native County Galway.

For anyone who claims even the faintest connection to Erin’s green isle, St. Patrick’s is a day of shamrocks, giant parades and emerald-colored beer. It is a day for glorying in the heritage.

But it always leaves Tommy feeling a touch of rueful irony, because the rest of the year, his Irish identity is something the 29-year-old carpenter tries to hide behind a phony Social Security number.

“I’m 100% Irish, and I’m 100% illegal,” Tommy said.

100,000 Slip In

The best-educated, most promising generation Ireland ever produced is fleeing to other countries at a rate of about 30,000 a year.

By some estimates, upwards of 100,000 young Irish have slipped into the United States illegally since 1982, seeking and usually finding jobs their own country’s battered economy cannot offer. Few seem daunted by the 1986 law aimed at discouraging employers from hiring anyone who cannot prove he is living here legally.

They are the largest wave of Irish immigrants in three decades, and the first large group of Irish forced to deal with the additional burden of living in this country illegally. Increasingly, they are finding themselves dissatisfied with life in society’s shadows, and are marshaling their growing numbers and influence to press for changes in the nation’s immigration laws.

In Boston and New York, a youthful brogue can again be heard on the streets of the old neighborhoods that lost earlier generations of upwardly mobile Irish immigrants to the suburbs.

Irish bars, many newly opened, are the center of the new immigrants’ social lives. Most nights, the crowded pubs hum with word of an unfilled job or a vacant apartment, or perhaps advice on how to quietly open a bank account or get a driver’s license without risking deportation. Young Irish workers learn quickly where to find a bartender willing to cash a paycheck in a pinch.

Irish Dreams

“There’s more Irish here than I ever dreamed of,” said Josie, a 25-year-old who arrived in Boston less than three months ago with two friends from Cork. “The pubs at home are empty.”

She and other young Irish interviewed for this story agreed to speak on the condition that their last names not be used.

These days, the immigrants do not have to go far to get a taste of home. Mindful of its competition, a Chinese grocery store in Queens’ Woodside section recently put a sign in its window advertising Irish bacon. And every Sunday night, the lines form at Gibbon’s Irish Import Store in nearby Jackson Heights for the 4,000 copies of weekly newspapers arriving fresh from all 32 Irish counties.

At the Bronx’s Gaelic Park or Boston’s Dilboy Field, a good game of Irish football or hurling can easily draw a crowd of thousands.

Entire teams of past seasons’ village heroes have moved to this side of the Atlantic. In Ireland’s poorest western counties, “some teams that had been in existence for 100 years have completely folded. During the summer, you can see a better game of football or hurling (in New York or Boston) than you would see in Ireland,” said Michael O’Connor, chairman of the Gaelic Athletic Assn.’s North American Board.

Young arrivals say there is a generation gap between themselves and earlier Irish immigrants. More cynical about their national politics and passions, some see a naivete in the support Irish-Americans have shown the Irish Republican Army’s violent drive for reunification with Northern Ireland.

Many Overqualified

“We’re very weary of the subject,” Tommy said. “People in Ireland did not see any difference between the IRA and the northern (British) army.”

At first, most of the illegal Irish thought they would stay only a few years. Trained to be clerks or engineers or teachers, many are overqualified for their jobs as nannies and manual laborers, and know they have no hope of advancement.

Never Go Home

Increasingly, however, they are beginning to assert that they will never go home, even though the new immigration law makes employers more leery of foreigners lacking the documentation to work here legally.

“Most of us have got no choice,” said 33-year-old Gerald, who has a degree in teaching but does construction in New York. “Green card or no, we’re staying.”

So the “New Irish,” as they call themselves, are mobilizing on Capitol Hill for a new set of laws.

A leader in the drive is a 20-month-old organization that calls itself the Irish Immigration Reform Movement. From its rented basement beneath a Korean insurance office and a Latino travel agency in Queens, the IIRM runs a national operation that already has chapters in more than a dozen cities, as well as its own lobbyist in Washington.

The IIRM counts among its backers such powerful Irish-American politicians as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who holds the critical post of chairman of the Senate’s immigration subcommittee.

Some Efforts Opposed

But some of its efforts also are being opposed by Latino and Asian groups. They fear that special treatment for the Irish and other Western European immigrants will inevitably mean fewer immigration openings for those from their homelands. Others say the Irish are taking jobs that should be going to unemployed Americans.

Emigration has for centuries been the Irish economy’s safety valve, which explains why an estimated 40 million Americans can trace at least some of their ancestors to an island smaller than Indiana. During and after the potato famine of the 1840s, a million people left--so driven by hunger that they were willing to take their chances aboard dangerous vessels nicknamed “coffin ships.”

But today’s Irish youth were supposed to break that pattern. “Here was what was to have been the first generation, in their parents’ eyes, that didn’t have to emigrate,” said Frank Costello, Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn’s adviser on Irish-American affairs.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Irish government spent mightily to educate them, making the country’s school system one of Europe’s best.

The country’s prospects in those years looked so bright that many one-time emigrants were moving back. It also took ambitious and expensive gambles on becoming a serious player in the world economy.

Ireland joined the European Community--helping its farmers to big subsidies but suffocating many home-grown industries under foreign competition. Looking toward the long run, it offered generous tax breaks to lure high-tech industry, even though that would cut revenue to the treasury.

By the early 1980s, the overzealous Irish government had taken on one of the largest per capita national debts in the world, and its economy came crashing down.

Unemployment rose to 20%, with the jobless rate among the young double that. Almost half the Irish population is under the age of 25, and many could find nothing better to do with their high school and college degrees than collect welfare.

“Anybody with a bit of ambition is inclined to go,” said Brendan C. Raftery, chairman of the IIRM Boston chapter. “The best people tend to leave. The people that we need the most in Ireland are over here.”

A survey commissioned by a Cork newspaper of 648 high school students graduating this June found that almost half plan to emigrate, rather than go to college or look for work in Ireland.

Move to England

They can move to England legally, and the majority will. But many Irish say the political and ethnic friction between England and Ireland makes that option uncomfortable. Others contend that job prospects in England are not much better than at home.

Under U.S. immigration laws written during the 1960s, it is nearly impossible for the Irish who are not in a few sought-after professions to come here legally. The law was weighted heavily toward close relatives of those already here, and at the time it was passed, only a trickle of Irish were moving to the United States.

As a result of this historic lock, only 3,060 Irish were among the 601,516 people allowed permanent U.S. residence in 1987, the most recent year for which government statistics are available.

The rest do it the illegal way, entering this country on easily obtained tourist visas--92,000 were issued the Irish in 1987--and simply failing to return when their allotted six-month stay runs out.

Once here, their lot is often far better than that of other groups of illegal aliens who are nonwhite and do not speak English. Quickly blending in, many have managed to join unions and some own property. Tommy, Gerald and others say they even pay income taxes and file for refunds under Social Security numbers they made up themselves.

Josie and her friends Mary and Carena knew only one person when they arrived in Boston last November, but they have quickly plugged into a growing Irish network. They find the rent on their $800-a-month apartment a little steep, but their landlord is an Irish-American who was not picky about obtaining a security deposit or getting the rent check on time. He even lent them furniture.

Extra Jobs

And simply by answering the ads they see in the Irish Voice and the Irish Echo weeklies, they are finding as many baby-sitting and housecleaning jobs as they want, usually paying almost $10 an hour.

“It’s very easy to get work here,” Mary said. “They’re just mad for the Irish.”

Of course, the fear of making a misstep and getting deported is always there, but it seems a remote one to them. “How are they going to catch us baby-sitting?” Carena asked, laughing at the idea.

The most serious problems come for illegal immigrants who suddenly get sick or injured--not an unusual occurrence for those in the construction industry--and find themselves without health insurance. Often, they turn to other Irish, who will get the word out through the pubs that donations are being accepted in a certain bank account, or that a dance or raffle has been organized to raise money to pay a hospital bill.

Many say the worst part of living here illegally is the dilemma they face when homesickness or family emergency draws them home for a visit. The return trip is a risky one, because any irregularity in their paper work or demeanor can tip off the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the fact that they have been living in the United States all along.

One of the hottest topics in the pubs over the last few weeks is the rumor that huge numbers of Irish were turned back at Shannon Airport as they tried to return to the United States from Christmas visits home. However, reports in the Irish Voice have reassured them that this is an exaggeration.

Rita decided to risk it last year, because her father was seriously ill. On her return, she carefully cut the U.S. labels out of all her clothing, and made sure she wasn’t carrying a driver’s license or other identification with her U.S. address. She considered bringing along a wedding invitation, so she could claim that as the purpose of her visit, but decided against it, because “everybody knows that trick.”

Cousin Stopped

Her cousin Brendan was stopped a year ago coming into Boston’s Logan Airport because he was carrying suspiciously few suitcases for a tourist. A computer check showed he had overstayed his previous visa, so he was sent home on the next flight. He destroyed his passport, got a new one, and sneaked across the border through Canada.

Like other illegal aliens, the Irish are vulnerable to exploitation by employers who know they fear to speak up. Often mentioned in the Irish community is the ordeal of Olive McMeel, who responded to a Detroit family’s advertisement for a nanny in her Irish hometown paper. When she arrived, her $200 weekly salary turned out to be $15 for a 90-hour work week, according to an account in the Irish Voice. The family confiscated her return ticket.

With the help of a friend, McMeel escaped to Boston in the middle of the night. Several months later, she called the family’s house and, as she feared, heard another Irish voice answer the phone. Delores Forest was enduring the same conditions, until McMeel came to her rescue.

Services Offered

Boston, New York and other cities are working to get the word to all illegal aliens that they should not let their immigration status prevent them from coming forward when they are victims of abuse or crime. Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis signed an executive order in 1985 saying no state services may be refused a person because he or she is an illegal alien.

As a 1988 Boston Police Department memo put it: “The purpose of the police department is to protect and serve every person within the city, regardless of the nationality, citizenship or immigration status. Every alien is entitled to and receives the same rights as every citizen, and when any one of them becomes victims of crime, they will be treated with dignity and respect by the police department.”

Many say the influx of New Irish to Boston has helped make officials more receptive to the plight of all illegal aliens. “These people could be their cousins,” said Muriel Heiberger, executive director for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

Boston Mayor Flynn even went so far as to state in an interview on Irish television that “as far as Boston is concerned, the welcome mat is out there.”

But others see a darker side to the special empathy that many Irish-Americans--particularly political leaders--feel for the latest generation of immigrants. “This is old-fashioned racism. This is the kind of stuff that says: ‘(America should have) more people like me,’ ” said Patrick Burns, assistant director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington organization seeking to limit immigration.

‘Find Them Here’

“It’s nice to have cultural roots, a couple of extra holidays and a recipe from your mother, but if you’re looking for huddled masses who are in need of aid, you don’t have to look to Ireland. You can find them right here,” Burns said.

But Kennedy and others emphasize that current law--with its emphasis on allowing in people with close family ties--penalizes the Irish and other countries whose people were not immigrating during the 1960s, when the law passed. Nor are the illegal Irish, by and large, eligible for special amnesty provisions of the 1986 law, because most moved here after the 1982 cutoff date.

Moreover, many say labor-short cities such as Boston could use the skills these immigrants bring with them. “They’re here already, but they can’t work” at the jobs they are trained to do, said Boston mayoral adviser Costello.

“Ironically, given the closing of the golden door in 1965 by the immigration act, we have, at the same time, witnessed the arrival in the United States, especially in Boston and New York, of what is the best-educated group of Irish ever to come here. These are the ones who could contribute more than their predecessors,” Costello argued.

New Type of Visa

The Senate last year passed, on an 88-4 vote, legislation sponsored by Kennedy and Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) that would have created a new class of visa to be awarded on a point system. Applicants would get an edge for such factors as education, work experience and ability to speak English.

But it got nowhere in the House. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), one leading opponent, argued that the legislation would have cut back on the number of visas available to reunite the immigrant families of such groups as Asians and Latinos--an assertion that Kennedy’s forces vigorously deny.

Others simply did not like the idea of this country awarding points to pick the immigrants it considers most desirable. “You ever read the Statue of Liberty? What does it say? ‘Send us your upwardly mobile’?” demanded Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). “My grandparents wouldn’t have gotten any points.”

However, Congress has agreed that the Irish and other groups do merit some relaxation in the current quota system.

In 1987, the government held a special lottery awarding 10,000 visas to applicants from 37 countries--mostly Western European--deemed to have been discriminated against in the 1965 act. The Irish submitted 200,000 of the 1.5 million applications received and won more than 40% of the new visas, which are called Donnelly visas after Rep. Brian J. Donnelly (D-Mass.), who sponsored the idea.

Tommy alone mailed in 250 photocopied applications. “I was every evening licking stamps and signing my name to them,” he said, laughing. His revelation startled his friend Gerald, who thought he had gotten an edge on the process by sending in 25.

Two More Chances

Both disappointed applicants will have at least two more chances. In the waning hours of the last session, Congress voted to make another 30,000 Donnelly visas available over the next two years. And, under Berman’s sponsorship, it passed a measure under which prospective immigrants from any country that sent less than 5,000 legal immigrants in 1987 can enter random computer drawings this year and next for a total of 20,000 visas. For that drawing, each applicant will be allowed only one entry.

For now, most young Irish are determined to stay and take their chances, whether by trusting their Irish luck in a lottery or flexing their Irish muscle on Capitol Hill.

Said one: “No matter how bad a job you get, no matter how you’re exploited, there’s still a lot of opportunity in this country.”