New Bill May Pave Path for Irish Aliens : Immigration: Many of the latest arrivals find opportunities severely limited. Given their education and skills, frustration runs high.

Twenty-six-year-old Brendan had high hopes of success when he came here from his native Ireland as that country’s economy turned sour in 1988. America is “a country where you can come and go-get-it,” he says. “I want to work for myself. I want to move.”

But for the past 2 1/2 years, Brendan has been stymied. Although he has two years of college, he can’t qualify for much more than a bartender’s job. He worries about filling out medical forms. And he has had to live in fear of arrest--by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Brendan (he won’t give his last name) is part of a new wave of Irish immigrants, some 100,000 or more who have landed on U.S. soil in recent years, many of them here in Boston, where a similar influx--in the early 1900s--settled, worked and eventually made good.

Unlike the earlier Irish immigrants, Brendan and most of his well-educated or highly skilled compatriots haven’t been absorbed very readily. The job market is tight, and not having the proper immigration documents severely limits what they can do.

Even more stultifying, increasingly restrictive U.S. immigration laws have virtually barred Irish subjects from becoming U.S. citizens unless they are relatives of Americans.

“I find myself stalled by my illegality,” Brendan laments. “You only live three-score-and-10, you know. I feel my time, my best years are running out.”

Soon, however, there may be some relief. The new immigration bill that Congress recently passed provides preferential treatment for Irish immigrants that could offer Brendan and thousands of others already here new opportunities to become “legal.”

Nestled in legislation to increase legal immigration to 700,000 persons a year, from the current 500,000, are provisions for some 48,000 entry visas just for Irish immigrants--more than double the number allotted to any other nationality. President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law.

Proponents say once the legislation becomes law it effectively will pave a new express lane from Ireland to the United States.

“The reforms will have a beneficial impact on Irish people wanting to find a better life in America,” says Declan Kelleher, an Irish government spokesman. “Many Irish are living in an out-of-status capacity. . . . This (law) should be able to get them proper credentials.”

But the transition won’t be easy. Currently, few of the illegal Irish aliens fully understand the new bill, and many are distrustful of any government promises. And the U.S. economy is in a slump, dampening job prospects for all in America, even for those legal workers who hold “green cards.”

And while the new procedures give a slight advantage to the estimated 100,000 Irish who are here illegally as opposed to applicants still living in Ireland, the process isn’t automatic. Because visas will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis, many could go to applicants abroad.

The task of spreading information about the new bill to worried Irish illegal aliens here--and coaxing them to apply for their visas--is expected to fall heavily upon an extensive network of relief agencies, Roman Catholic church officials and Irish rights organizations.

But here, too, there are obstacles to be surmounted. As more illegal immigrants have come to the United States, relations among some of these groups have become strained, with the newer organizations adopting tactics that older ones find offensive. In some cases, the new Irish immigrants are encountering friction with their predecessors of decades ago, many of whom resent the newcomers’ radically different values.

“Most of the old immigrants came here in the past from poor and rural communities in Ireland, which colors the way they remember the place,” explains Ken, a 41-year-old illegal immigrant who is living in the Boston area.

“The young people coming here now are better educated, they come from the cities and many have traveled before settling here. They’re not as religious as their parents or the older immigrants. They have a totally different view of Ireland, themselves and the world.”

The split has shown up most visibly in the efforts of the Irish Immigration Reform Movement, a New York-based organization that was instrumental in pushing the new, expanded immigration quotas for Irish aliens through Congress.

Formed out of splinter groups of illegal immigrants themselves, the group--which has chapters in several large cities with sizable numbers of Irish aliens--hired Washington lobbyists and enlisted the aid of lawmakers who are influential in setting immigration policy, such as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Reps. Bruce A. Morrison (D-Conn.) and Joe Moakley (D-Mass.).

Although the IIRM achieved its aims, it did so in a way that tended to make members of the old-line Irish-American community uncomfortable.

“They have a sensational approach,” gripes Bill McGowan, a Boston accountant and insurance broker who has been active in the Irish Working Committee, a coalition of relief and social service agencies that has been set up to help the city’s immigrant communities.

“The leaders in the Boston chapter (of IIRM) are a somewhat more radical group--they like to attack the Establishment,” McGowan says.

But Donald O’Sullivan, president and chairman of IIRM’s Boston chapter, brushes aside such criticisms as “90% envy and 10% objectivity” on the part of older-generation Irish-Americans.

The IIRM’s tactics may have been aggressive, but there was nothing wrong with them, O’Sullivan says. “We were audacious, optimistic and confident,” he concedes, but “We were very clear in what we wanted. We got down and dirty and did the work to change the law.”

Moira Maguire, a Boston native whose grandparents emigrated here in 1910, said she became active in IIRM lobbying because she remembered the stories that her grandmother told her of the difficult cultural transition that the earlier immigrants had encountered.

“A whole generation of (Irish) people have become complacent,” says Maguire, 25, a college graduate who works as an administrative assistant in a Boston bank. “They have forgotten how difficult it was here before they became established in America.”

Ken, the 41-year-old illegal alien, believes the newcomers’ higher education level and more aggressive posture is a plus, because they are coming here with a level of energy that the more impoverished Irish immigrants of the early 1900s did not have.

“The leaders of the IIRM have an opportunity, having set a precedent with the passage of the (immigration) legislation, to go into politics and to challenge the community’s older and comfortable leaders in our community,” Ken says.

“I think that it is important for us to bring in fresh ideas and perspectives to our community,” he adds.

There’s no doubt the new bill will make life here a lot easier--and potentially rewarding--for thousands of illegal immigrants.

For Joe, a 26-year-old bartender and construction worker who has been in Boston for about 18 months, qualifying for the new entry visa would end the frustrating hardships of having to live underground and provide the promise of an open life in America.

After finishing three years of college, Joe left Ireland for a vacation here and never returned to his native country. About a month ago, he married an Irish woman who also has been living illegally in Boston.

From time to time, Joe says, the thought of being discovered crosses his mind--”mostly when you hear that some Irish guy was caught. Then, you feel a little bit cautious.”

But the prospect of a day when both he and his wife can “be just like any other American--with an apartment, a bank account, credit cards and the works”--overrides his fear of detection.

“I don’t know too much about the details right now, but I intend to apply for it,” he said of the new visa opportunity.