Some politicians in the United States have been attempting to exploit the tragedy of the Boston bombings to try and prevent the progression of the new bill for immigration reform, but leaders in the Irish-American community are uninterested and unimpressed by their scaremongering.
They insist that it is full steam ahead for the new bill and that they have high hopes that the days of being unable to go home for funerals or weddings because they are afraid of being unable to come back to the US will soon be over for thousands of undocumented Irish immigrants all over the country.
The immigration bill was hammered out earlier in April by eight Democratic and Republican senators and has been hailed a breakthrough following many years of similar failed efforts. Then the attack on Boston took place, with the bombers coming from Chechnya and the bill’s opponents saw the chance to make political gain from the tragedy, with Republican senators Rand Paul and Chuck Grassley calling for delays or reconsideration of immigration reform because the bombers were immigrants.
However, the two political opportunists have been well and truly rounded upon by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s powerful Irish-American chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy, who accused the pair of exploiting the tragedy and found himself being supported by members of the Republican leadership. It seems that since the Hispanic vote helped President Obama to re-election last year, the views of the likes of Paul and Grassley have started to become unpopular even within their own party.