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A MEME OF US Vice President JD Vance depicted as a baby was held up in the Dáil today by Labour leader Ivana Bacik.
Bacik used the prop to illustrate her frustration at the United States’ recent clampdown on international visas, including the popular J1 visa used by Irish students.
Earlier this week, the US announced that future applicants looking to visit the country will be required to divulge “all social media usernames or handles of every platform they have used from the last five years” on their visa application form.
They are also required to set their social media profiles to public.
Bacik told the Dáil today that this is a “major incursion on the freedom of expression”.
“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.
“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.
“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,” Bacik said as she held up a sheet of paper.
“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.”
Bacik said she welcomed Tánaiste Simon Harris’s promise this week to raise the J1 visa issue with the US Ambassador to Ireland, but asked what Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan (who has responsibility for issuing visas in Ireland) will do to reassure young people travelling to the United States.
In response, O’Callaghan said there is “very little” he can do about the US immigration system.
“Like I’m trying to put rules on the Irish immigration system, I can’t control the US immigration system,” he said.
O’Callaghan added that he thinks the new rules imposed by the US are “regrettable” and he welcomed the criticism of the decision by both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste.
The Norwegian tourist Bacik referred to claimed he was denied entry to the US because of the meme of Vance on his phone.
The story was first reported by Norwegian newspaper Nordlys on Monday, and then picked up by the Daily Mail on Tuesday.
The tourist, Mads Mikkelsen, claimed he was threatened with a $5,000 fine or five years in prison if he refused to provide the password to his mobile device, which he did.
Mikkelsen claimed he was sent home to Norway after authorities discovered the Vance meme on his phone.
However, the US Customs and Border Protection has since stated that the tourist was denied entry because of his “admitted drug use”.
In a post on X, the organisation said it was not for any memes or political reasons.
Fact Check: FALSE
— CBP (@CBP) June 24, 2025
Mads Mikkelsen was not denied entry for any memes or political reasons, it was for his admitted drug use. pic.twitter.com/is9eGqILUq
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