White, Irish, and undocumented in America
By Donie O'Sullivan
Updated 2:01 PM ET, Thu March 16, 2017
The name of the undocumented person featured in this report has been changed to protect her identity.
New York (CNN)They're spared the glances. The "go back to your country" slurs facing so many undocumented migrants in the US. But they live in fear. They don't call the police when there's a break in. They think twice before they bring a sick child to the emergency room. Only, they're white - and they're Irish.
An estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish immigrants live in the United States -- they make up a small percentage of the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living there, the majority of whom were born in Mexico.
"It is easier being illegal here when you're white," Shauna, an undocumented Irish immigrant, tells CNN. "It's not easy, of course, you have that paranoia but there isn't the racial element. It's a bit easier to stay under the radar."
But there's a growing sense of fear in the community since the election of President Donald Trump.
"I've never seen fear like this here," Oliver Charles says standing in front of his butcher shop on McClean Avenue, in the predominantly Irish neighborhood of Woodlawn in the Bronx, New York.
"The fear is always there but now everybody is talking about it and everybody is worried."
A sign in Charles' store window reminds passersby to put in their corned beef order ahead of St. Patrick's Day -- a dish traditionally enjoyed on Ireland's national holiday on March 17.
Charles, who came to the US more than 40 years ago and is now a US citizen, doesn't ask his customers' immigration status, but he suspects that many are undocumented.
"That could affect my business," he says of Trump's proposal to deport America's undocumented immigrants.
more:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/16/us/white-irish-undocumented-trnd/index.html
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