By Claire Corrigan
As the world continues to absorb last week’s shock election results, Monday saw Irish Immigration leader Ciarán Staunton, express concern at misleading media reports on deportation by President-elect Donald Trump.
“While we are all concerned with many of President-elect Trump’s statements on immigration during his campaign, we urge people not to make any rash decisions or live in fear of a knock on the door. ”
In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, Mr Trump said: “What we are going to do is get the people that are criminals and have criminal records – gang members, drug dealers…we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate.”
One person who lives in constant fear of deportation is Westmeath native *Gregg who has spent the past eight years living in hope of President Obama passing a law to help those who are trying to seek asylum.
Greg said that the many people in his position are devastated by the outcome. “They don’t know what’s going to happen. When Obama was in power, there was so much bad feelings between him and the Republicans. They blocked everything for all of Obama’s eight years so nothing has happened. There was such gridlock in the political system and certainly something had to change but Donald Trump is not the right man to lead the change,” he said.
SAN FRANCISCO
Gregg first travelled to San Francisco in 2001 to visit his brother. “At that time there was a huge Irish community in San Francisco, particularly in the Sun Set District area which had a huge social scene and lots of Irish bars and lot of Irish my own age. The construction industry was booming and my brother was well known within the circles.”
Offers of work quickly came flooding in and Gregg made the decision to leave his job at home and see if he could make a new life in the US. “After what seemed like a minute, I had been here for two years and wanted to stay.”
At that point Gregg had begun working at another company, the owner of which put him in touch with an emigration attorney. “The only thing that was available was a J1 which I was granted.”
The card enabled him to be allocated a social security number which allowed him a bank account, driver’s license and a contractor’s license. “I then started working for the same company as the sub-contractor or supervisor and to this day I’m still doing the same thing. I could basically operate the same as any US citizen, only I can’t come and go as I want.”
With the 18 month J1 Visa soon to expire, Gregg then began the long process of applying for a green card. “A couple of years had gone by and I got accepted on the first two phases here in the States for the Green card. It then went on to Ireland and my attorney said my application would become active in Dublin in February.”
In 2008, Gregg attended a bachelor party in Nashville, Tennessee, that would see his plans fall into disarray. “One of the guys got into a scuffle with the security guard, and the three people who were closest to the door were taken away by the cops which was me, my brother and the guy who started the fight.”
At the time U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had just started a programme two months prior where anyone who was arrested for any reason had to have their name run through immigration before they could be released. “We were held for 72 hours and were in leg irons and handcuffs and treated like murderers.”
When the Irish Embassy in New York become involved, the pair were retuned to New York for deportation.
After two weeks at home, Gregg and his brother worked out a way to return to San Francisco. They flew back through Canada, bussing through the country after completing a four and a half hour hike through the woods. “We had a friend waiting on the other side. We both had our California IDs and we just drove to an airport and got a flight back to San Francisco.”
In 2010 a traffic collision saw Gregg sent home again after ICE got involved and he returned again through the Canadian route.
In 2013, Gregg met the woman who is now his wife. “I was driving out of my driveway and I noticed a car parked oddly with people in it and they followed me and pulled me over and it was ICE again. I was sent home again.”
His girlfriend decided to fly to Ireland where the pair were married and Gregg remained at home another for a further four months while he attempted to sort out the legalities of the marriage. It was then that Gregg would receive the most devastating blow yet. “I went for my interview in the American Embassy in Dublin and they denied me and deemed me permanently inadmissible based on the re-entries.”
He reentered the States again through Canada but says that not being able to return home is heartbreaking. “My mother is in a nursing home and she’s not going to last much longer and it’s one of my biggest fears. Since I’ve returned the last time, I’ve bought another house where I live with my wife. We have a great life and we both have two great jobs and everything we could ever want, except for that little piece of paper.
He said the pair were strongly considering applying for Canadian visas but is worried he won’t be accepted. “It’s been eight years of constant disappointment with a disaster at the end. The future doesn’t look good.”
Regarding Trump’s election, Gregg, who has spent $35,000 in legal fees, said he understands how the renegade candidate was successful. “I think its very similar to Brexit – a bunch of people voted for something that they are unaware of what the consequences would be. The Canadian emigration website crashed the day following the election, with US citizens making inquires into how to move to Canada and now there are nightly riots on the streets,” he concluded.
