Eric Zhi Ying Mei Xue
Eric Zhi Ying Mei Xue is a fourth-class pupil at St Cronan’s school in Bray, County Wicklow.
Ten-year-old Eric, who was born in Ireland and has never been out of the country, was facing deportation.
However this afternoon, after 67,234 people signed a petition calling for the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to revoke his deportation order, it has emerged that the order has been lifted.
Emma O’Kelly, of RTÉ, reports:
Eric was born here but he is not an Irish citizen. However, he is not a Chinese citizen either and has never lived anywhere other than Ireland.
In the past few days his mother, Leena Mei Mei Xue, from Co Wicklow, has received notice that she and her son have been granted leave to remain.
Eric’s mother came here 12 years ago from China, aged 19. Her attempts to regularise her residency failed and a deportation order was served against her in 2015. A subsequent appeal was rejected.
Last October she was told by immigration authorities that they were preparing travel documents so that she and Eric could be deported to China.
In 2004 a referendum was passed which provided that children who are born here to foreign national parents no longer had a constitutional right to Irish citizenship.
Deportation order against Wicklow schoolboy lifted (RTÉ)
Bualadh bos for Eric
+1 :0)
Eric has over 60k friends – good on him.
the practical application of that referendum laid bare for all its wrongs.
A lot of the daw jawed electorate in Ireland had no clue what they were voting for. Or maybe they did and it’s just that the Irish people are extremely racist.
This kid is as Irish as Leo Varadkar, thankfully common sense has prevailed
‘This kid is as Irish as Leo Varadkar’
Ron displays his latent racism
They knew EXACTLY what they were voting for? And why were the Masters of our maternity hospitals allowed to racially profile pregnant women and report the data to the government in support of the amendment?
Culture 101: This “daw jawed” term is a PITH by the way. It’s “gob daw” over here.
are you drunk?
My cousin used sing a song called Nobody’s Child, occasionally to get us little uns to sleep when I was a little un. For a long time I did not understand the impact that had on me.
Later I grew up, and learned that people have a right to an identity. While I understand the reasons why people voted the way they did in that referendum, the result was a group of people with no national identity – nobody’s children, just like Eric.
I hope that they right this wrong, and grant Eric the Irish citizenship I believe he deserves.
Excellent news. Now can we repeal that racist 2004 amendment please?
This was clearly the intent of McDowell’s racist referendum. It was well known at the time what he was up to. Looking at Trump and Bojo, it seems our version was ahead of his time.