The arrest of undocumented Irish man in the Boston area and imminent deportation has lit up fears through the Irish community in the city.
38-year-old John Cunningham, former chairman of the Boston Northeast GAA, has been arrested by the immigration and customs enforcement officers at the residence in Boston on last Friday.
His detention has sparked the fears of more arrests of the undocumented Irish living in Massachusetts under the administration of Trump.
A native of Glencolmcille, Co Donegal, has been living in the United Statessince the year 1999 and had not returned to the Ireland in 16 years. He featured in the RTEPrime Time programme broadcast in the month of March in which he has talked about living as an undocumented individual in the country.
Mr Cunningham was arrested for “immigration violations,” a spokesman for the ICE, Khaalid Walls said. The Donegal man “entered the country lawfully under the visa waiver programme but failed to depart in compliance with the terms of his visit,” he said.
“Cunningham is currently in ICE custody pending removal from the United States. Visa waiver programme participants waive their rights to a hearing before an immigration judge and are subject to mandatory detention,” the spokesman said.
The Donegal man will be held for hearing at the South Bay House of Correction, a part of the Suffolk County jail system in the Boston.
Visa waiver programme permits the visitors to travel to the US for tourism, business or while in the transit for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa. Overstaying the than the term of programme is one of the most common ways that the undocumented Irish enter the country.
The Irish community in Boston is in fears that the arrest of Mr Cunningham and detention will mark an increase in the enforcement arrests by the US immigrants officers acting under the Trump administration’s direction to raise up the detentions of the undocumented immigrants.
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