Artwork by Adri Eleveld

Among the upwards of 20 million illegal aliens currently in the U.S. are an estimated 50,000 from Ireland. They’ve joined the rest of the open borders lobby in pressing for the feds to grant them amnesty, citizenship, and other rights.

Leading the pack of St. Patty’s panderers are Sens. John McCain and Hillary Clinton, who has postured as a tough-of-borders enforcer–while condemning House GOP immigration enforcement measures as “police-state” tactics and rallying Irish illegal alien activists to the amnesty cause. Terry Jeffrey noted:

Senators John McCain (R.-Ariz.) and Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.), the current frontrunners for their parties’ 2008 presidential nominations, joined Senators Teddy Kennedy (D.-Mass.) and Charles Schumer (D.-N.Y,) in rallying a group of illegal aliens who came to Washington, D.C., on March 8 as part of a lobbying effort funded by a foreign government to push for amnesty for illegal aliens.

McCain and Clinton both effusively greeted the illegal-alien lobbyists as if they had come to champion some great moral and constitutional cause.

“It is so heartening to see you here,” said Clinton. “You are really here on behalf of what America means, America’s values, America’s hopes.”

“You are doing what democracy is supposed to be all about, petitioning the government to right a wrong,” said McCain.

The lobbyists, part of an effort organized by the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR), were not petitioning their own government, of course. They were petitioning our government, using Irish government money to do it…

…The Irish Times, published in Dublin, trumpeted the fact that “illegals” had rallied on Capitol Hill with McCain, Clinton, Kennedy and Schumer. One Times story on March 9 was headlined: “‘Illegals’ lobby for right to stay in U.S.”

“Capitol Hill became a sea of green and white yesterday as thousands of undocumented Irish immigrants came out of the shadows for immigration reform,” said the Times. “They were rewarded with appearances from some of the most influential figures in Congress, including the two front-runners to succeed President Bush—Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton.”

Another item in the Irish Times, with the headline “Irish rally to press for legal status in America,” said: “More than 2,400 undocumented Irish immigrants and their supporters rallied in Washington yesterday in support of an immigration reform bill that would allow them to remain in the U.S. legally.” This report further noted that “Senators Kennedy, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer addressed the demonstrators, who wore white T-shirts with the slogan ‘Legalize the Irish.’”

“There has never been a presence like we’ve had today,” Clinton told the crowd of illegal aliens, according to the Irish Times.

So much for this…Hillary Clinton February 2003:

I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants. Clearly we have to make some tough decisions as a country, and one of them ought to be coming up with a much better entry-and-exit system so that if we are going to let people in for the work that otherwise would not be done, let’s have a system that keeps track of them… People have to stop employing illegal immigrants.

Blarney.