As a member of the European Democratic Party in the European Parliament, and MEP for the North & West constituency, Marian Harkin used her political connections in the US Democrats to lobby support for undocumented Irish immigrants at a major rally in Washington on Wednesday last.

In addition to lobbying to legalise the thousands of undocumented Irish she also arranged meetings for the Irish Farmers Association, with her namesake Senator Tom Harkin, Chairman of the US Senate Agriculture Committee and with Colin Petersen, Chairman of the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee. “This is the second year I have travelled to Washington to help to lobby for the passing of new immigration legislation and I am very hopeful that the new bill proposed by Senator Ted Kennedy and Senator John McCain will be passed and will help the many sons and daughters of my constituents to have the choice of remaining in and working in the USA”, she said.

Referring to the meetings organised for the Irish Farmers Association, Deputy Harkin said that there was a great deal of common ground between Irish and US Farm interests and this became clear in the discussions in Washington.  “One thing we are very clear about is that EU Trade Commission Peter Mandelson, in his handling of the WTO negotiations, is not in any way representing the interests of Ireland and the best outcome for us at this stage is that there should be no conclusion reached in the negotiations”, she said.

Marian Harkin said that she had been very pleased to have been in a position to organise meetings for the IFA in Washington and to establish important contacts for the organisation with people who had a major influence on the outcome of any WTO deal.