By Robert Shortt, RTÉ Washington Correspondent
Marco Balbuena sat in the shade of the marquee with a small American flag in his lapel pocket.
Beside him, Stephen Arkoh from Ghana, who drives a truck at Washington Dulles Airport was dressed in his best suit.
Both men were waiting for the ceremony to begin which would make them the newest citizens of the United States of America.
Marco’s journey from Peru to the US began through the hardscrabble desert of the Arizona-Mexican border ten years ago. Stephen won a green card through the lottery system.
Both men are part of an immigration system that’s bursting at the seams.
Attempts to reform the system are now at the centre of a nationwide debate that could shape the demographic makeup of the United States for a generation.
Legislation is before the US Senate which would legalise the status of an estimated 12 million undocumented, including over 20,000 Irish.
Under the proposals, these people could apply for a new visa called a ‘Z-visa’ which would be valid for four years.
They would also have to pay a €3,722 ($5,000) fine and after working for an additional four years, would have to return home to apply for a green card.
Advocates call it earned citizenship. Critics call it an amnesty.
But the critics of this bill are not confined to the descendants of the ‘Know-Nothings’ of the nineteenth century who protested at the large numbers of impoverished Irish arriving on coffin ships.
Criticism of this bill is coming as much from the left as from the right.
The bill also contains a provision for the employment of up to 200,000 temporary workers on two year visas, after which they would have to return home.
Unions are fearful this could bring about a new sub-class of low paid workers. Others argue it will create the kind of social division that’s contrary to the principle that all immigrants to the United States can become citizens.
A bigger change by far is the overhaul of the green card system itself.
Currently, it’s easier for the relatives of those already with green cards to also move to the US.
This bill proposes a re-balancing of the rules that would award green cards based on skills and qualifications.
The same system is used in countries like Australia.
This has also been criticised by many immigrant groups.
Thirdly, the bill also contains commitments to bolster border security and implement a worker ID system.
The bill is far from perfect but twelve million people is a messy problem that won’t yield to a simple solution.
The main legislator behind the new bill is veteran Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy, who draws his inspiration from the book his brother wrote when President: 'A Nation of Immigrants.'
76-year old Senator Kennedy is a passionate orator, who at several rallies organised by the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform has brought packed crowds to their feet with his vision of bringing illegals 'out of the shadows into the sunshine of America.'
He is also an expert toiler in the smithy of senatorial debate and has already seen off several amendments that would have torn apart the fragile consensus that has brought the bill thus far.
His partner is all of this is none other than the President, George Bush.
Both men come from opposite ends of the political spectrum.
But Mr Bush has used his presidential platform to support the bill.
He told an audience in Georgia this week that he feared America 'was losing its soul' and he blasted opponents of the bill, who, he said were trying to 'rile up people’s emotions with misinformation.'
The American soul was much in evidence at Marco and Stephen’s swearing-in-ceremony.
With hand on hearts, almost one hundred people from Afghanistan to Vietnam pledged their allegiance to their adoptive country whose motto is E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One.
For many around the world, it’s still a land of opportunity.
The question now facing its politicians is how and who can take those opportunities.
Robert Shortt's piece will also appear this Saturday on the RTÉ Radio 1 programme World Report.
