By Sean O’Driscoll 

The Emerald Isle Immigration Center in Queens has vowed to reapply for a street to be named in honor of an immigrant rights campaigner who was killed on National Guard duty in Iraq earlier this year.

A Community Board in Queens narrowly rejected naming a street outside the center in honor of Frank Carvill, a founding member of the Irish Immigration Reform Movement. The movement won considerable congressional success for the rights of Irish and other immigrants. 

Immigration rights activists have strongly condemned the decision, including attorney Brian O’Dwyer, who said that he could not express the outrage he felt over the “short sighted and mean-spirited decision.”

Carvill was also a founding member of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center and was later its treasurer and a board member. 

He was killed in Iraq on June 4 in a landmine attack on a vehicle in which he was traveling. He and another soldier killed in the same attack were the first New Jersey National Guards to be killed in combat since World War II. 

The executive director of the Emerald Isle, Siobhan Dennehy, said that she was deeply disappointed with the decision. 

“It’s back to the drawing board. We are all horribly disappointed but we will be reapplying,” she said. 

The application had been strongly supported by New York City Councilman Eric Gioia, who also expressed disappointment at the decision. 

In a letter of support for the proposal, Gioia said that Carvill had been a support to Latinos and immigrants from around the world, not just the Irish. 

“Thanks to the hard work of Frank Carvill, hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Ireland and around the world living in Woodside and across New York City have had the opportunity to seek the American Dream,” he said. 

After the proposal was narrowly defeated, O’Dwyer said that the Land Use Committee’s reasons for refusing the submission were mean spirited and did not have any validity. 

He rejected the argument that Carvill was not a Queens resident and therefore should not a street named in his honor in the borough. 

“Our position is that residency is not an important factor when making the decision, once due consideration is given to Frank’s positive impact on Woodside for over a decade,” he wrote in a letter to Councilman Gioia. 

He also strongly rejected the argument that street name changes should be reserved for Queens soldiers who will die as the situation in Iraq deteriorates. 

“Our position it that yes, sadly, we expect more deaths of Queens soldiers, but Frank’s entire life up to and including his ultimate sacrifice at the age of 51, sets him apart,” he wrote.