President George Bush is a good friend to the estimated 30,000 illegal Irish people in the US, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said today.
Speaking after a 48-hour visit to New York, Mr Ahern said the Mr Bush had shown understanding towards the plight of the undocumented workers living in his country.
The minister met with Irish-American politicians and groups on Saturday including the Irish Lobby for Immigrant Reform (ILIR), which gets Exchequer funding. "President Bush has shown goodwill and great understanding towards the plight of the Irish in the US," Mr Ahern said.
The minister also promised increased political focus on the immigration issue by the Irish Government in early 2007.
"Come the New Year, there will be new initiatives by the Irish Government in tandem with the ILIR to secure a long-awaited deal on the undocumented. "The Kennedy-McCain Bill is still the obvious way forward."
The minister ruled out the possibility of pushing for a bilateral visa deal similar to the one the US recently agreed with Australia. "We're looking at all the options, but our absolute focus at the present is the legislation because we've come so far."
"Comprehensive immigration reform once and for all will sort this problem out forever."
Mr Ahern said victories by the Democratic Party in US mid-term elections had created a new political climate but it wasn't clear yet if it would be positive or negative for the issue.
"There are certainly congressmen, both Republican and Democrat, who are very supportive of what we are trying to achieve," he noted.
Mr Bush said last April that he didn't believe that the US's 12 million illegal immigrants should be deported. He indicated that he wasn't in favour of granting automatic citizenship but said undocumented workers could join the queue for work visas. "I know this is an emotional debate.
But the one thing we cannot lose sight of is we're talking about human beings, decent human beings. Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic. It's not going to work," he said.