Using the new association that Independent MEP Marian Harkin has forged with the Democratic Party in the USA, she will travel to Washington next week to assist the lobbying for immigration reform.

Marian Harkin, MEP is the first Irish politician to join the European Democratic Party which former European Commission President Romano Prodi was instrumental in founding.

As a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group in the European Parliament, Deputy Harkin was targeted by both of the group’s member parties and recently decided to opt for the Democrats.

“I have found in the ALDE Group that my views are more in tune with the Democrats than the Liberals and I am also attracted by their association with the Democratic Party in the USA”, Marian Harkin said.  In this regard she will be actively lobbying Democratic Party members of the Senate and Congress to pass legislation favouring undocumented Irish in the USA.

Last week in Brussels she met senior Californian member of Congress Ellen Tauscher, a leading figure in the ‘Clinton’ branch of the American Democratic Party who has strong Irish roots.  “The bi-partisan Senate bill initiated by Senator Ted Kennedy and Senator John McCain provides a major opportunity for all politicians to lobby for a positive outcome for our undocumented emigrants and I believe that the connection I now have to the US Democratic Party and to politicians like Ellen Tauscher will help me to be more effective in lobbying at Washington level”, Marian Harkin said.

The Independent MEP is to travel to Washington on March 8th to support the campaign of the ‘Irish lobby for Immigration Reform’ which will involve delegations from all over the United States lobbying Senators and members of Congress to support the McCain/Kennedy immigration reform bill.