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MORE than 1,000 illegal Irish immigrants converged on Washington DC yesterday to lobby US law makers for a chance to remain in America in a last-ditch effort to rescue a proposal to reform immigration laws. Joined by a cross-party delegation of Irish politicians, the immigrants knocked on lawmakers' doors in the US House of Representatives and Senate to ask their support for an immigration bill that would create a path to permanent citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented workers in the US. Last week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives put the brakes on a comprehensive immigration bill that was endorsed by the US Senate and President Bush. Immigration activists now fear that a precious opportunity to lift the legal uncertainty around undocumented workers has been lost for the foreseeable future. "I am really concerned. As a politician it would seem to me that this is a delaying tactic by those who are hostile to immigration reform," said Fianna Fail Senator Paschal Mooney. Yesterday's rally was organised by the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR), a New York-based group that has dramatically raised the profile of the 25,000 undocumented Irish workers living in America. Immigrants wearing white t-shirts with the slogan 'Legalise the Irish' gave a rapturous applause to the Irish politicians who told the group that they had the full backing of the Irish government. "You're not a security risk, you pay your taxes, you have become good Americans and you helped, through former generations, to build up this great country," said John Cregan, a Limerick Fianna Fail TD. Caitriona Palmer
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