[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 63 (Wednesday, May 14, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2595-H2596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            IRISH DEPORTEES

  (Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of Noel Gaynor, his 
family, and six other families on whom injustice has fallen across the 
ocean from Ireland to America.
  The Irish political deportees, as they are referred to, left Ireland 
to restart their lives in America. Today they are engaged in a 
different struggle with the U.S. Department of Justice which 
relentlessly seeks to deport them for their political beliefs. Each man 
is married to an American citizen or permanent resident.
  These men are not wanted by anyone. They were prosecuted for 
political reasons in the British Diplock Courts. That means one British 
judge, no jury, confessions which were extracted under torture and 
duress, and as such, they were sentenced and held with a special 
political status, a direct acknowledgment of their status as British 
political prisoners.
  All of them have proven through years of residence their commitment 
to their families, communities, and indeed to the American dream.
  This is a photo of Sinead Gaynor holding a sign at a demonstration

[[Page H2596]]

which says ``Don't Deport My Daddy.'' She and the other nine American 
children are the reason we are here today. Sinead deserves the same 
opportunity to live in America and realize her dream as any other 
child. These people should not be deported.

                          ____________________