Undocumented Irish urged not to make ‘rash decisions’ by lobby group

Undocumented Irish living in the US have been urged not to make “any rash decisions” amid president-elect Donald Trump’s latest comments regarding deporting or imprisoning up to three million immigrants.

Ciarán Staunton, chairman of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, said the group would keep a close eye on events as they progressed in Washington.

“While we are all concerned with many of president-elect Trump’s statements on immigration during his campaign, we urge people not make any rash decisions or live in fear of a knock on the door,” he said.

Mr Trump said the authorities would round up undocumented immigrants with criminal records – a group he estimated at between two and three million people. He said he would later “make a determination” on those, including thousands of Irish, who were undocumented but had an otherwise clean record.

It is estimated that there are about 50,000 undocumented Irish in the US.

Mr Staunton said the group would like to emphasis that Mr Trump said he was focused on people with criminal records.

He criticised some media for “misleading” reports on the potential deportation of undocumented immigrants.

Mr Trump said in an interview on CBS's 60 minutes on Sunday: "What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records – gang members, drug dealers . . .we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate.

He said when the border was secured and “everything normalised”, he would decide on a plan to deal with the “terrific people” who were in the US illegally but who had clean criminal histories.