Elaine Loughlin: Trump's ICE attacks on free speech do not stop at US borders

Trump’s administration is using visa policy as a political weapon — and Irish students may be the next casualties

In the Dáil, Labour leader Ivana Bacik highlighted the case of a Norwegian tourist detained and refused entry to the US because of a comical JD Vance meme on his phone. Picture: Oireachtas TV

Humiliation is just another minor consequence of Donald Trump’s latest chilling move against freedom of speech, which threatens the entire bedrock on which the US was founded.

This week I toyed with taking a look back at some of the best years of my life.

Thankfully, the demise of Bebo meant I couldn’t find a way to log in to see what ultimately would have been an embarrassing stream of blurry pictures, apparently funny comments, and hot takes on the world that would have left me cringing for days.

Thoughts are no longer private

The years that straddle adolescence and adulthood is a time in which most people are navigating the world, making mistakes, and forming their own opinions, many of which will change as lived experience alters what can be idealistic and naive interpretations.

The current generation of third-level students, who have no recollection of Bebo, are now finding that what could have been a fleeting opinion or throwaway remark may have a lasting impact.

Under new rules, all applicants for F, M, and J visas to the US will be instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to “public”.

Running contrary to everything from John Stuart Mill's 'On Liberty' through to the US constitution itself, Donald Trump, 'is denying the space and freedom to allow truth prevail'. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

Irish students looking to spend a summer in America on a J1 visa will be required to list all social media usernames or handles of every platform they have used from the last five years on their application form.

Applicants must certify that the information in their visa application is true and correct before they sign and submit. Omitting social media information could lead to visa denial and ineligibility for future visas.

“A US visa is a privilege, not a right,” a statement issued by the US embassy read.

Threat to first amendment of the US constitution

The latest announcement is just part of an ongoing intrusive policy which aims to engender fear, curtail opposing opinion, and ultimately threaten the much-valued first amendment of the US constitution.

“We are watching a major incursion on freedom of expression unthinkable in a Western democracy,” was how Labour leader Ivana Bacik described the changes announced to the student visa system by the US administration this week. Holding up a comical printout of an online meme in the Dáil chamber, Bacik detailed how US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, had detained a young Norwegian tourist at Newark Airport for five hours before he was ultimately sent back to Oslo.

Why? He had on his phone the same meme depicting vice president JD Vance as a baby.

While Bacik described the incident as “extraordinary”, such examples are becoming more frequent under the Trump administration, which seems hellbent on stifling alternative opinion.

John Stuart Mill explained free speech

Freedom of expression, especially in the academic sphere, is crucial if we as a species are to evolve and advance.

In his 1859 essay, On Liberty, British philosopher John Stuart Mill put forward a comprehensive three-pronged argument as to why opinions, regardless of how incorrect or misaligned they are, should never be silenced.

“In any argument there are only three possibilities. You are either wholly wrong, partially wrong, or wholly correct — and in each case free speech is critical to improving or protecting those positions,” he wrote.

“Only through diversity of opinion is there, in the existing state of human intellect, a chance of fair play to all sides of the truth.”

ICE arrests 

Trump, through a series of measures is denying the space and freedom to allow truth prevail.

This began in March when ICE agents began arresting student protestors who had expressed pro-Palestinian views.

In one of their many notorious actions, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) held Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, for three months. Picture: Ted Shaffrey/AP

This included the high-profile case of Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist at Columbia University who was returning home from dinner with his eight-month-pregnant wife when he was taken by four ICE agents and forced into an unmarked car.

Although Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who was born in Syria, was released after three months in custody on June 20, the administration has indicated that it will appeal this and has cited a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 in its effort to deport Khalil.

The clause allows the secretary of state to remove individuals from the country if they have reason to believe the person’s actions or presence undermines foreign policy interests.

Since Khalil’s arrest, hundreds more students have been detained over their pro-Palestinian campus activism, with often vague allegations tabled against them.

In late April, plans to further expand the reasons under which international students can be stripped of their legal status in the US were unveiled. Since then, there have been pauses on visa interviews and a move to “aggressively” revoke visas for hundreds of thousands of Chinese students.

More than 60 third-level institutions, most notably Harvard University, have been threatened with billions of dollars in financial penalties. In refusing to bow to Trump’s pressure, Harvard is battling moves to freeze research grants and suspend foreign students from enrolling in the Ivy League college.

 

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Under such constraints, a brain drain has begun, with many lecturers and researchers looking to Europe and further abroad for refuge.

Beyond academia, the administration has banned news outlets from covering White House events and sought sanctions against attorneys and law firms who do not represent Trump’s view of the world.

The land of the free and the home of the brave is becoming a place where those brave enough to speak out are suppressed and punished.