The Boston Globe, February 8, 2012 -

"US Senator Scott Brown, who hopes to garner reelection support from the state’s large Irish-American population, has become a central player in a battle to allow more Irish workers to come to America.

 

"Brown’s efforts to break a logjam in the Senate over a bill that would allow an additional 10,500 skilled Irish workers to gain work visas every year have attracted significant attention in the Irish press and are being watched closely by activists around the US.

 

Brown’s office has been in negotiations in the Senate for weeks and the bill’s supporters are hoping for a resolution soon.

 

The measure was originally authored by Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat from New York, as part of a larger immigration bill that has broad support among Senate Democrats [The Fairness in High Skilled Immigrants Act]. Brown and Senator Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, sponsored a similar stand-alone measure in December, but stripped out a provision that would have made it easier for undocumented Irish immigrants living in

America to gain work visas.

 

Brown has been negotiating in hopes that Republican leaders will sign on, allowing for a rare bipartisan bill to move through a bitterly divided Congress. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who has held up Schumer’s bill because of immigration issues unrelated to the Irish work visa provision, is hoping to broker a compromise with Brown, his office said Tuesday night."

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