Come home for Xmas..& risk being on Santa's ICE list

Warning to thousands of Irish in US over Trump's 'illegal alien crackdown, Advice on TG4 show for those thinking of Xmas trip to 'stay put & keep head down'

- CATHAL RYAN

UNDOCUMENTED Irish citizens living in the United States are being advised not to return to Ireland for Christmas because of fears over President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

Warnings that Irish citizens could be detained or prevented from returning to the US were made in TG4's Trump agus na Gaeil programme, which aired yesterday.

The show also revealed that new figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Dublin show that there has been a significant increase this year in the number of Irish citizens who have requested assistance in relation to deportation from the United States.

Speaking on the programme, prominent Irish American lawyer and founding member of the Irish American Democrats, Brian O'Dwyer, says any undocumented Irish should remain in the US and not contemplate travelling home over the festive period.

"In the current climate, if they are undocumented, they can't go home because they are not going to get back in. At the moment, they just have to stay low and hope this boils over. I can't give them much better advice than that," Mr O'Dwyer said.

"It's that dark, and it's cruel. What they are doing is they are picking up people and then detaining them unnecessarily."

It is not known how many undocumented Irish there are in the United States but estimates vary anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000. Most are termed "overstayers" - people who have remained in the country after their permission to be there legally has expired.

CAUGHT