HOW TRUMP'S AMERICA REMAINS THE GO-TO FOR IRISH STUDENTS

Why J1 visa hopefuls should have no fear on their trip of a lifetime

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IT has been a rite of passage for generations of Irish students. But this year a shadow was cast over the J1 Visa summer trips to the US when the White House announced a crackdown on young people who have expressed “anti-American” or “pro-Palestinian” views in their social media.

A presidential diktat ordered students to open their accounts to scrutiny by immigration officials.

It sparked fears among some that they could be turned away at borders or face dreaded ICE crackdowns.

Trinity College student EVE LESLIE was among the J1 Class of 2025 who did travel this summmer. Here she recounts the fun and the fears of her own experience in Trump's America in a summer that could mark the end of an era.

AS EXAMS finished and a carefree student summer of travel beckoned, the road was calling. But the destination I had in mind was the one place most people were warning me not to go near.

The Middle East? Or somewhere dangerous like war-torn Sudan? No, the red flags people were waving were about the “land of the free” - the United States.

Like thousands of other Irish students, I headed off to the US to work and travel on a J1 visa, risking being an immigrant in a place where they were seemingly no longer welcome, and where all you had ever posted could be a barrier to making it past the airport.

Anyone who has gone on a J1 will know that it is a process that starts almost an entire year before you get on the plane.

PLAN

A friend and I had decided after a summer spent sulking in Dublin that the following year, we would do something different - and a summer in New York City seemed as good a plan as any.

So we had paid up our deposit towards a sponsor company to secure our places, way before certain events of November 2024 seemed to change the climate towards J1ers with warnings of social media background checks.