This long article tells the human side of Matt Morrison's life in
Derry and the US, and the reasons for his voluntary deportation. Most of
the historical narrative of “The Troubles”, generally sympathetic to
Morrison, will be familiar to TPQ readers. But overall, the article make
you wonder how many Irish people, who have led good lives for decades in
the US, are now facing the same dilemma as Morrison.
Trump administration officials aim to pressure some noncitizens into self-deporting. It worked on Matthew Morrison. In mid-July, the 69-year-old former psychiatric nurse supervisor quietly fled the United States.
Morrison had been threatened by an aggressive government before. When he was a teenager, he fought against what he and others in the Irish Republican Army saw as an occupying British government that discriminated against marginalized Catholics in Northern Ireland.
For his efforts then, Morrison said he was beaten by interrogators and wound up in prison, where some of his comrades died in a hunger strike protesting the revocation of their political status.
Upon his release in 1985, he feared for his safety. He came to St. Louis, married his American pen pal and had two children. Eventually, he overstayed his tourist visa, divorced his pen pal and remarried. He's had the spectre of deportation hanging over him for decades. His family has endured the highs and lows of his battle along the way.
Now, Morrison leans on a cane. He's had several strokes. He said that the fear and uncertainty that he might be picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was more than he could bear.
Continue @ NCR.
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