Irish Immigration Reform Movement.

The Irish Immigration Reform Movement (IIRM) was a grassroots organization established in 1987 whose primary objective was to legalize the status of undocumented immigrants from Ireland and 34 other countries adversely affected by America’s 1965 Immigration Act. The IIRM ceased activities in 1992.

Working for legislative reform, the IIRM grew from a small New York-based group to a national organization with branches in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Washington, Kansas City, San Francisco and San Jose. Combining traditional grassroots activism with inside-the-beltway lobbying, the IIRM leveraged Irish-American political influence to help shape U.S. immigration policy in the late 1980s and in the process energized the Irish-American political presence in Washington.

The Immigration Act of 1990 (H.R. 4300) stands as the primary legislative legacy of the IIRM. This legislation provided a three-year transitional visa program through which 48,000 visas were granted to Ireland, as well as the annual diversity visa lottery program which continued into the twenty-first century.

Reflecting the IIRM’s “all-Ireland” perspective, the transitional visa program contained a provision defining Northern Ireland as a separate state. This unique element, secured through intensive lobbying by the IIRM, enabled thousands from Northern Ireland to participate in the visa lottery who, prior to this, had been ineligible because the United States’ immigration system classified them as English.

The IIRM was also instrumental in securing 25,000 visas for Ireland through several extensions of the Donnelly Visa program from 1988 up to the implementation of the Immigration Act of 1990.

In order to address the day-to-day problems of documented as well as undocumented Irish at that time, IIRM members established the Emerald Isle Immigration Center (EIIC), which since 1988 has served as a model for similar advice and advocacy agencies in the United States. It operates New York City offices in Woodside, Queens and in Woodlawn, the Bronx.