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YOUNG IRISH PEOPLE visiting the United States have been urged not to edit or amend their passports, after a number of Irish citizens were arrested in the US after trying to travel on edited passports showing a fake date of birth.
A number of students – the majority of them visiting the US on working J1 summer visas – have been caught sticking duplicate photograph pages on top of the originals, in a bid to pass themselves off as being over the local drinking age of 21.
While the students present the original unamended versions of their passports upon arrival in the US, they then adhere the fake page to their passports for presentation in bars and nightclubs.
The amendments can be easily detected by border control officials, however – with a number of students attempting to cross the border between the US and Mexico being arrested for attempting to travel using inauthentic documentation.
The proprietors of bars in a number of cities popular with travelling Irish people have introduced zero tolerance measures, seizing the passport and bringing its holder to the attention of local law enforcement agencies.
It is known that one bar in Chicago has decided not to acknowledge Irish passports as a form of ID at all, given the number of fraudulent passports presented to its door staff.
In at least one case, TheJournal.ie has learned, officials from the Irish diplomatic corps were called upon to make representations on behalf of an Irish citizen who had been arrested after trying to use a falsified passport.
TheJournal.ie also understands that the majority of the students found using doctored passports attend colleges in Cork.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said that Irish passports – which all times remain the property of the Minister for Foreign Affairs – were compromised even if the fake laminated sheet has been removed, because of the damage caused in placing it there in the first.
“Individuals who have attached a laminate to their passport, or have altered details on their passport in some other way, are strongly advised not to travel on the document and to have it replaced immediately,” a spokesman said.
“Specifically, we urgently advise any student or traveller who has placed a laminate on their passport to contact their nearest Irish Embassy or Consulate immediately to arrange a replacement.”
A list of Irish embassies and consulates can be found on the Department’s website.
Travel agency USIT has emailed every customer on a J1 visa to advise them against altering their passports, stressing that falsifying a passport is a criminal offence in Ireland and a federal offence in the USA.
Gary Redmond of the Union of Students in Ireland asked people with family or friends travelling in the US to pass on the warnings to them, and to encourage them to have their passports replaced “without delay”.
“Being caught with a modified passport will jeopardise your future travel plans, and may limit your future career choices,” he said.
The US Department of Homeland Security had yet to return contact at the time of publication.
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I don’t and I’m Irish. Don’t remember being asked my opinion… (A system that gives suspended sentences to criminals but puts honest folk in prison for standing up for the truth)
A closeted, cliquey, deluded group of overpaid, borderline-honest, chancers. Recent criminal case I have knowledge of had a barrister ‘afraid’ to introduce a line of questioning for fear he’d ‘annoy’ the judge, and also didn’t want to ‘bushwhack’ his opposite no. in prosecution as “he and his wife were at my wedding”!! Funnily enough, the statement of professional fees I believe had no such hesitancy in boasting of their adroitness though!!
Why do people here respect and trust the legal system here?
The legal system is as bent as the political landscape. They are co-joined twins.
Well holy god seanie, you’re certainly changing your tune about the whole political landscape over the last few weeks. Have you had a political awakening?
I suppose when you start to reject one central aspect of your political discourse that everything else that flows from that will be questioned as well.
What f’ing planet was this report carried out on?
Not a day goes by in this country where the general population aren’t appalled by weak sentences handed down to repeat offenders.
When a rapist walks free with a fine and a suspended sentence…how can you trust them
The 20 Ched Evans fans just disagreed with you ;)
Which case are you taking about where someone convicted of rape was fined, given a suspended sentence and walked away? And did you actually attend court for any of this? Or are you just making assumptions based on reading tabloids.
The corruption within is covertly covered up behind closed doors in secret and held to be just by judges that hold to be independent in their duty wrong or right .,. how more corrupt can it be then this …………………………………………………
Like Irish judges???…
Do Irish judges realise they can impose double digit year sentences on violent criminals???
Another deluded ivory tower dweller. Talking complete and utter gibberish about us trusting the judicial system.
All the top judges are politically appointed so they’re just an extension of the government and to take them on in the courts costs an arm and a leg….Justice system has been bought and paid for a long time ago……it’s a big fat NO from me.
Exactly Derek. To be a judge you have to be politically connected. The way they are appointed is ridiculous. Check out the JAAB.
ALL judges are political signed off on. Not just the higher ones. All of them. Same for Superintendents and above in AGS, are all politically signed off on (an argument can be made that politics also affects sgt and inspector ranks as well, but that’s another day).
Old boys club who live under a big rock
I do not trust you.
This is another prime example of somebody with a heightened sense of importance living on a completely different planet than the rest of us.
I wouldn’t consider the judiciary corrupt, out of touch is another matter, though.
Or perhaps just having an opinion that differs from yours- oh no!
The only citizens who have any faith in the irish judiciary are ones that ain’t been in court in over a decade or the deluded ones that still have blind faith in the rest of our joke of a system
Tatler did that report just after they gave Joan her women of the year award.
I don’t trust them.
I don’t. Judges are corrupt dirtbirds.
I’ll start trusting them when they lock up the charlatans in the DAIL.
Having spent 2 years in court over 3 grams of cannabis which cost the state 10,000. No I am not very confidence in that system, although I legislation change would fix that.
So the revolving door prison system, laughable police force, and criminal tourists aren’t of concern? Only in Ireland.
This is a Eu body report.
By EU standards it is upstanding, fair and trustworthy.
Lol more comedy
Say what? I trust no one not even my shadow that’s a sneaky little thing following you around all day. No faith in justice, courts, police, TD’s, not even in the president.
I guess thats a normal comment coming from a non national
Where did these guys get their information, from the Beano?
Low levels of political corruption, competence and fairness in the legal system? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Seriousy deluded finding. I wouldnt be of their opinion what so ever. Mind boggling
How come they’ve sided with the govt on water charges and not looked at the legality of forcing contracts on people. It’s insane really.
Are they f*cking joking?
” Seem to trust” ? What does that mean or imply? Judges seem to be overpaid? Are they? They seem to make inconsistent , and contradictory judgments. . They seem to be independent, but as political appointees are they. ? I wonder what Louise O’ Keeffe thinks about them.?
Another delusional report. There really wacking them out these days.
It’s actually hard to make out what the report says to be honest.
This case of an ex-judge is all you need to know about our ‘judges’ http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Curtin
The judiciary are owned by the government, all appointed by politicians and know their masters. Were the government to lift the embargo on banks calling in judicial debts, there would be many a defrocked judge and SC. So manners and doing masters bidding is a given. No garlic on my patch, white collar to the back bone old boy!
Justice Denham I’m sure that you don’t have the right to speak for the majority of Irish people. Its not fare that just because you are a judge in the courts that you think people are treated fairly. I had a case in the High Court and I could never say that there was any fairness there. If anything it was because of corruption that I lost my case.
Even I have to question those findings.
Really? I don’t agree. They’re all part of the elite 1%. With money, comes greed and power, with power comes back handers.
“It is also noted that the reduction of public salaries due to the financial crisis may have compromised the constitutional safeguarding of judges independent and professional standards”.
I was taking the article seriously until I read the last paragraph. Who was surveyed – the Judges and barristers?
Is it me or is Susan deneham a doppelganger of Tony sopranos mother
Politically appointed judges hardly ever actually jailing criminals, what planet are these muppets on? Judges are a joke in Ireland and not trusted.
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