Latino, Irish Catholics in illegal immigration march (Archdiocese of San Francisco, Irish government)

It's not just the Mexican government that meddles in our internal politics in order to support illegal immigration. The Irish government partly funds a group called the "Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform" [1], and yesterday some of their affiliates organized a march in San Francisco featuring 300 Latino and Irish Catholics demanding immigration "reform" (the falsely-titled "Irish, Latino Catholics march for immigrant rights" by Jill Tucker, link).

The sponsors of the event: the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Catholic Charities CYO, the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, the Irish Immigration Pastoral Center and the San Francisco Organizing Project. After the march a mass was held by Archbishop George Niederauer, and Rev. Brandon McBride spoke at the march.

The IIPC is linked to the ILIR; from sfiipc.org:

As many of you will know, we have also in 2006 become involved in the national campaign for comprehensive immigration reform for our undocumented Irish and indeed all undocumented immigrants to the US. Through our involvement with the US Catholic Conference of Bishops' Justice for Immigrants campaign and the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, we have been in a position to keep our community updated and educated on the progression of the legislation through government.

And, from a news release at the site of California Assemblywoman Fiona Ma:

Fr. Brendan McBride from the Irish Immigration Pastoral Center (IIPC) introduced State Assembly Member Fiona Ma, who cancelled a prior engagement in Sacramento to attend the ILIR event. After donning a "Legalize the Irish" shirt, Ma thanked everyone for their attendance and pledged her commitment to immigration reform.

She's proud of being a useful idiot for a group linked to a foreign government?

[1] The ILIR is run by Niall O'Dowd, publisher of the Irish Voice newspaper. They've enjoyed access to politicians that other groups only dream of; at their site there's a picture of them with John McCain (irishlobbyusa.org/people.php), and they've also met with Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. And, here's a picture of Frisco mayor Gavin Newsom wearing one of their "Legalize the Irish" t-shirts. That link includes audio (cached) of ILIR vice chair Ciaran Staunton joking about working under a fake SSN:

Someone told you, you wouldn't get a job without a Social Security number. You made one up. You got your job.

Maybe we should take that recording to campaign appearances by Clinton or McCain and see whether they appreciate the joke by the group they've supported in the past.

Immigration2007a · Sun, 06/10/2007 - 08:29 · · Importance: 1