The Irish government has donated more than 1.5 million dollars to Irish immigration organizations in the United States, a statement from Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said Sunday.

The total of 1,518,500 dollars would go to 16 organizations "which provide frontline support and advisory services to Irish emigrants."

Dublin has so far provided over 3.1 million dollars to immigration groups this year as up to an estimated 50,000 Irish citizens living and working in the US face possible deportation for not having visas.

Dublin has been pressuring Washington to grant the so-called undocumented Irish legal status.

"The allocations that I am announcing today are to organizations that ... work with the undocumented Irish, whose status remains an issue of the highest priority for the government and which I have raised with key US legislators in the course of my visit," Martin said after meeting with community groups in New York on Sunday.

The Irish government set up the Irish Abroad Unit in 2004 to help Irish ex-patriates, especially the undocumented. It has donated more than 8 million to US organizations.