Emigrant’s grief over terminally ill mother
It’s a story all too familiar to the thousands of undocumented Irish emigrants right across the US, but one County Galway man is silently coping with the added pain this week of being unable to come home from America to visit his dying mother.
The 32-years-old from South East Galway is just one of the tens of thousands of Irish illegal immigrants working in the States – but now he is trying to come to terms with the fact that he may never see his mother alive again.
Because if he were to come home to visit his mother, who is being treated for cancer, then he would not be able to return to America where he has a wife and a couple of children.
The man, who works in the building industry in Chicago, could not even come home to attend the funeral of his grandmother. He went out on a holiday visa around 12 years ago and never returned. And if he was caught by the authorities, he would be arrested, imprisoned and then deported.
This person’s story was related to Galway Bay fm broadcaster Keith Finnegan who attended the recent Irish festival in Milwaukee.
While the man has married an American citizen, it could be several years before he gets citizenship himself as it is a very convoluted and time consuming process.
“It was heartbreaking stuff,” revealed Mr Finnegan. “He has learned that his mother has been diagnosed with a severe form of cancer and doubts if he will see her before she dies.
“Some people will say that this was the choice they made and have to live with the consequences, but it is a very sad situation for anyone to be in.”
It is believed that there are several thousand alone from County Galway living illegally in the States – they are known as the ‘undocumented Irish’.
Read more in this week’s Connacht Tribune