Labour leader Ivana Bacik holds up copy of JD Vance meme in Dail over visa concerns
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Labour leader Ivana Bacik held up a copy of the JD Vance "baby meme" in the Dáil chamber to raise concerns about new US visa social media checks for students.
The US Embassy in Dublin confirmed on Monday that Irish students applying for certain US visas will be instructed to set their social media profiles to public as part of a new "comprehensive and thorough" vetting process. Following a pause, it confirmed that it will shortly resume taking applications for J, F and M visas, all used by students travelling to the US to study and work.
Applicants must provide all usernames they have used in the last five years on their application forms, amid a warning that "omitting social media information could lead to visa denial and ineligibility for future visas". Earlier this week, a 21-year-old Norwegian tourist claimed he was denied entry to the United States and harassed by ICE agents after they discovered a meme about US Vice President JD Vance on his phone.
Holding up a picture of the meme in the Dáil Chamber, Ms Bacik raised concerns about the new US immigration policies with Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan. She said that thousands of Irish people work in the US on J1 visas and it is "generally" a very positive experience.
She said: "But things have changed drastically under US President Trump with the recent authoritarian announcement that students will have to hand over social media accounts.
"We're watching a major incursion on freedom of expression, unthinkable in a Western democracy. This week, a young Norwegian tourist detained by ICE at New York airport and 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 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."
Minister O'Callaghan stated there was "very little he can do about the US immigration system".
He added: "I'm trying to put rules in the Irish immigration system, I can't control the US immigration system. I think it is regrettable that these new measures are being introduced by the United States."
Taoiseach Micheál Martin branded the social media checks "excessive", with Tánaiste Simon Harris vowing he would raise the issue with the US Ambassador to Ireland, Edward Walsh.
Norwegian Mads Mikkelsen arrived at New Jersey's Newark Airport on June 11 when he was pulled aside by border control and placed in a cell, he told Norwegian outlet Nordlys. Mads was travelling to the States to visit friends, first in New York and then in Austin, Texas, but suffered "harassment and abuse of power" at the hands of US immigration authorities.
After handing over his phone password, he was told he would not be allowed to go through with his planned vacation after two images were not to the officers' liking.
One image was of a meme showcasing JD Vance with a bald, egg-shaped head. Variations of the image were shared endlessly in March on social media, with the Vice President himself posting his own version.
The Norwegian further claimed he was strip-searched, placed in a cell for another five hours, refused food or water and placed on a plane back to Oslo the same day he arrived for the holiday of a lifetime.
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