Ivana Bacik holds up meme of JD Vance in Dail over US visa clampdown
Ivana Bacik held up a meme'd photo of US Vice President JD Vance in the Dáil over the US' increased strictness with visa applications.
The US have recently announced that future applicants looking to visit the country will need to divulge 'all social media usernames or handles of every platform they have used for the last five years,' and are required to make their social media profiles public.
Following reports that a Norwegian tourist who was detained by ICE and then deported due to having a photo of Mr Vance altered to show him bald and as a baby with rosy cheeks, Labour leader Ms Bacik highlighted her frustrations with the current US administration — including holding up said photo. Ivana Bacik held up a meme'd photo of US Vice President JD Vance in the Dáil over the US' increased strictness with visa applications. Pic: Oireachtas TV
'Each year, thousands of young Irish people work in the US on J1 visas. I've done it myself, I had a very happy summer in Boston many years ago. And generally it's a very positive experience,' she said. 'But things have changed drastically under US President Trump with the recent authoritarian announcement that students would have to hand over social media accounts.
'We're watching a major incursion on the freedom of expression, unthinkable in an electoral democracy,' Ms Bacik continued, before holding up the photo of JD Vance.
'This week, a young Norwegian tourist detained by ICE at the airport was sent back to Oslo. Why? He had this meme on his phone minister. A meme depicting Vice President JD Vance as a baby. I mean, extraordinary. Extraordinary that a young person with this amusing meme on their phone, depicting a public person, that this would be used as an excuse to detain him for five hours and then deport him back to Oslo.' The meme of US vice president JD Vance depicts him as a bald baby, with a Norwegian tourist claiming that he was detained and deported for having the meme on his phone.
Mads Mikkelsen, a 21 year old tourist from Norway, was detained and deported to Oslo after he said that ICE made him unlock his phone, and claimed that he was deported after they found the Vance meme on his phone.
This has been disputed by the US Customs and Border Protection, who wrote on Twitter (X) that Mr Mikkelsen was deported for 'admitted drug use.'
Taoiseach Micheál Martin recently said that he didn't approve of US President Donald Trump's 'excessive' social media vetting, saying 'I believe those measures by the United States are excessive. I don't approve of them. I don't agree with them.' Taoiseach Micheál Martin criticised recent tightening of visa requirements in the US, which will see those looking for visas having to give their usernames of every social media platform they've used over the last five years. Pic: Leah Farrell/© RollingNews.ie
'One of the great things in the world, in the modern world, has been the capacity for young people to travel and mobility is important. There is an issue around freedom of speech, but it's more the atmosphere that's created by these measures, the fear and the anxiety that young people will now experience travelling.'
The president of the University of Galway's Student Union, Faye Ní Dhomhnaill, called the announcement 'disappointing' and said she's certain J1 applications will fall as a result.
She added: 'Most people who would have considered going to America will probably end up inter-railing instead. Already I've seen people that were on the fence about a J1 this year just decide that it wasn't worth the hassle, so they would instead go to Europe. It's incredibly disappointing that this is supposed to be 'the land of the free', and champions of free speech.'
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