Hard to believe that it’s already a year since the days of Morrison Madness, when tens of thousands of Irish (as well as people of other nationalities) mailed over 14 million applications for the chance of winning 40,000 green cards in a Green Card lottery. The lottery, aimed largely at redressing the shortcomings of previous U.S. immigration regulations, was a major victory for the hundreds of thousands of young Irish immigrants in the U.S.
Currently we are in the middle of phase two of that visa lottery, which, over a three-year period, is designed to give out 120,000 green cards, 48,000 of which are reserved specifically for the Irish. Millions of applications were sent in during the month-long filing period which began on July 29, the results of which will be known in the coming months.
The visa program, which in 1991 was made law due to the push of former Congressman Bruce Morrison (D-Conn.), and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), is aimed at adjusting what some saw as an imbalance in existing immigration law, dating back to the 1965 Immigration Reform Act.
Inadvertently, that act greatly cut the number of green cards given out to western European people, to the point where the number of Irish being legalized in the years before 1980 fell to less than a thousand.
Largely due to the failing Irish economy, the mid-1980’s saw the largest surge of emigration from Ireland since the 1950’s. Naturally, most of these ended up in the U.S., where they ended up working illegally, many with fake names and social security numbers and all with a fear of being caught by immigration authorities.
However, with the help of already-established Irish-American groups, the Irish galvanized to form a lobbying powerhouse, the Irish Immigration Reform Movement. The young Irish reached their ultimate achievement with last year’s law, which will benefit immigrants from 35 other countries as well as Ireland.
There have been changes still even since last year’s lottery. Perhaps the most monumental was the decision by Congress to include applicants from Northern Ireland in the number of those eligible for Ireland’s share of the visas, a move which in effect acknowledges the Republic of Ireland’s connection to the North. Also, instead of last year’s multiple-application scheme, this year’s lottery is single application only.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the September 1992 issue of Irish America. ⬥
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