We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
IF DONALD TRUMP makes it to the White House it could mean the end of the J-1 programme.
The Republican presidential candidate has released his immigration reform policies in which he targets the programme which is a rite of passage to thousands of Irish students each year.
A part of a range of immigration policies he wants to introduce, it states:
“The J-1 visa jobs program for foreign youth will be terminated and replaced with a resume bank for inner city youth provided to all corporate subscribers to the J-1 visa program.”
The J-1 Visa allows full-time third level students to enter the US on a J-1 Exchange Visitor Visa.
Students are allowed to travel to the USA and work there legally for up to four months.
The programme has hit the headlines in the US, with some criticising the behaviour of Irish students.
Just this summer, following the Berkeley balcony tragedy, the former Irish president Mary McAleese hit back at the New York Times newspaper for branding Irish students with a “lazy tabloid stereotype”.
The newspaper had claimed the visa programme was an “embarrassment for Ireland”.
Other reforms Trump wants to impose could also impact on the Irish living abroad in the states. These include:
Under the Obama administration strides have been made in immigration reform that could benefit the Irish living in America.
Obama has quite a different view to Trump. On St Patrick’s Day this year President Obama said he and Taoiseach Enda Kenny shared the view that one of the great strengths of the US is its willingness to welcome new immigrants to its shores.
He said that nobody has contributed more to the growth and dynamism of the US economy than Irish immigrants.
During his visit to the White House in March, Kenny confirmed he had discussed visa waivers that would allow illegal Irish immigrants to travel to and from Ireland and the US freely.
Additional reporting from Business Insider
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
If the Americans voted Bush in twice I wouldn’t be surprised if they vote Trump in.
Donald Trump is a circus, a sideshow, who’s only showing more and more of his gaping ignorance as the campaign goes on. He’s not going to get the Republican nomination, and even if he does, there are contingencies in place that reserve the right of the party leadership to decline even a winning candidate, formulated im sure in the event of just such a bona fide idiot emerging victorious. Trump may indeed be the single biggest factor in driving home another Democratic presidency in spite of O’Bomber’s underwhelming tenure, because WHEN he loses the Republican nomination, there is every chance his egomania will ensure he goes rogue and runs an independent campaign, thereby splitting the Republican vote.. Personally I have no idea what the party were thinking to allow this fool run , he’s a disaster waiting to happen, he’s literally like a child who has the money to play politics for real, and that’s what it is to him. But it all starts to make sense when U realise it was that old fox Bill Clinton who got on the phone to the Donald, blew some smoke down the line, reached his hand down there and tickled his balls, and told him he should run! Donald Trump is the best thing that ever happened the Democrats
Trump is looking after his own people. While he has other policies I disagree with, I admire him for this one.
Irish people travelling to the US for summer are taking seasonal jobs away from students and others, impacting both the conditions and the pay for these jobs while at the same time increasing property costs in the area.
Yes, travelling to the US might be fun for Irish people and business owners and the property market might appreciate it too but it comes at a cost to their own citizens.
In fact, now I think about it for two seconds, the only way this makes ANY sense is if Trump is actually a Democrat agent, and on the basis of some gloriously advantageous deal gets free reign to come out with all the crazy, belligerent, chauvinistic, ignorant, polarising remarks his heart desires; the more divisive the better, because he’s actually working for the other side.. The truth , dear friends .. Etc etc
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/21/politics/donald-trump-election-democrat/
Yes, the problem is, of course, those pesky foreigners. We all know the catastrophic economic damage wrought by a few students who work shitty jobs for three months of the summer. Yes, that’s the source of the problem in the US.
Well, once…
Immigration is a huge concern for Americans as it effects the conditions of employment for workers as well as affecting the property market and social system. Trump is telling potential voters that he will do something about immigration and not just Irish J1 visa workers. This is what politicians are supposed to do in a democracy – address the concerns of their voters.
And BTW, America’s trillions of debt is partly caused by its huge welfare bill which is partly caused by workers not being able to better negotiate the terms and payment for their employment as America is constantly being swamped with workers who are willing to work for less and pack themselves into smaller homes. This of course suits those at the top of the food-chain.
How is it the workers fault that businesses will not pay proper wages? The businesses do not have to pay lowest wages possible, they choose to.
Even the extreme right in Ireland would be looking at this lad in a strange way…!
Trump has formed his own opinions based upon the numbers of illegal Mexican and Cuban migrants presently in the US. He will say anything to win those votes.
It’s not the workers’ fault. It’s the government’s fault for allowing the country to be swamped with endless numbers of migrants. If one business selling tacos starts employing Mexicans for funny money, then the Taco business down the street has to do likewise to compete, otherwise they go out of business. The wage they pay is the exact amount people are willing to work for. When Mexicans are willing to work for less, that disadvantages the people already living there.
Are u serious ?
When the Marxist USSR wanted to break the borders of Poland and invade with Soviets, they called any Pole who spat on the Soviets a “dangerous threat” and sent him to the GULAG.
The Globalist Neo-Marxist Elite want no borders so they can force GULAG slave wages on all peoples.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4799476/
The man’s a total nutjob!!
Trevor Beale@ He is a buddy of Michael Noonan after all.
I know, he will make a great President.
The king is dead long live the king
From current polls there seems to be a lot of nut cases in the US at the moment and he is playing to this constituency. On immigration was Trumps wife from the Czech Republic
I have to say I agree with all these!
Neo-Marxists are petrified of Trump.
The Globalist Neo-Marxist Elite want to destroy borders to reduce everybody to gulag slave wages.
We’ve seen this all before. When the glorious international Marxist USSR tried to destroy the border of the Czechs, they sent the the GULAG any Czech who resisted: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4799476
Considering America’s foreign policy it’s interesting that the biggest threat to the nation is home grown!
Your are 37 times more likely to be killed by a police officer in the US than killed by a terrorists .
I’m not sure why that’s supposed to be a shocking statistic… how much more likely is a police officer to be killed in the USA than in Ireland?
The straw that broke the camels back .your finnished now trump.D orish won’t be happy now.And as 50 million claim Irish heritage.that’s a lot of votes
Keep it up trump, you have only targeted the irish and mexican community, only anoher 35% left to annoy.
Plenty on here would agree with his immigration policies. Except, oh wait, it affects us Irish so boohoo!
Exactly. Irish people think they have a divine right to travel to and work wherever we want. If an Irish politician suggested Trump’s policy for Ireland, they’d be hailed for it.
well then, let’s boycott his golf course
Lets boycott Golf
Another reason for Irish students not to vote for Trump tbh. I mean, this and the fact that we can’t
To be honest, the J1 is only a glorified summer pi$$ up for students of generally well-off families. Anybody who thinks its about finding yourself and gaining new experiences is kidding themselves.
Give over, a lot of people work to pay their own way. Get down off that high horse.
Describe well off?
@Brian. It may be that for some but I’m sure it adds a lot to the US economy. Waves of students come in for a few months, do low paid or tips only seasonal jobs, rent property then go travelling when they spend everything they’ve earned in the America economy.
I was leaving our apartment at six every morning and home for six every evening, working as hard as I ever did on a site. The money was good and our rent was paid by our football team but the cost of living is enormous in the cities. Ya we enjoyed ourselves at the weekend and got to travel a bit but we worked for it. To say its for the well off or that its a glorified piss up is wrong for 90% of J1ers.
Can Irish students even vote in the Presidential election?
it’s hard to get off a high horse with dignity
LOL what a tool. Bit like saying all non EU employees working in Ireland will be replaced by out of work tavellers from halting sites around the country.
Aren’t all Americans children of illegal immigrants?
No.
Yes!
Native Americans, naturalized citizens and children of legal immigrants aren’t.
Yes they ethnically cleansed the rest
Ok Donald, watch what happens in New York when 1/8 of the people who work there are shipped home.
What would happen is that property prices would decrease and workers would be better able to negotiate the terms and pay of their employment.
There won’t be the staff to fill the bars and restaurants.
Yes there will be. They will just need to offer conditions that make working there worthwhile. Single parents for example who are on welfare would be in a better position to negotiate the hours and conditions of their work. Students likewise.
The man is a muck raker, he’ll never see the Oval Office he is in the running to rake things up. He cares about his businesses and money too much to be taking on the top job I think.
Some people wanted him to run for New York governor a while back. He said he had no interest in the job, which is just insane. Surely if you genuinely want to be a politician, a great way to start is running for governor of the state with the 4th biggest population? The fact he didn’t want that job but wants president tells me he couldn’t give a sh*t about voters or politics or even his own country, he’s just a spoiled little brat who wants the most powerful position he can think of. I can’t wait for him to fail.
Cant tell if you are talking about Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton. Bush or Trump.
@Shalak – and where was Obama governer of before he was elected?
Obama didn’t exactly have the political influence for obvious reasons
The Dude, Obama wasn’t a Governor but he was involved in politics at a serious level for a long time. He as an Illinois State Senator from 1997 to 2004 and a member of the US Senate from 2005 to 2008. Prior to membership of these two legislatures he was involved in community politics. As for Donald? A big fat nothing!
The Dude is not racist against white people.
John’s answered that one for me, so I’ll just add on to it. Every other candidate has taken part in politics to some extent, either as a senator or governor or congressperson. Trump was given the choice to take part in politics, and run for a fairly prestigious position where he could have gained experience and show what he could do, but turned it down because he wasn’t interested. What the fvck kind of politician is that?
Pure clickbait headline
The man has a point
Time to head to the greens at Doonbeg with some washing detergent
Someone has to remind Trump that there are American people working, living and studying in Ireland and that we have a bilateral agreement with them, scraping the J1 would be scrapping our bilateral agreement, because all non EU students are legally entitled to work up to 20 hours a week and full time during school holidays.
On a per capita basis, the numbers of Irish born in America is similar to the number of US born in Ireland, I have meet a lot of them.
That’s what most people who run on an anti-immigration platform fail to outline, how are they going to deal with the influx of expats when other countries introduce retaliatory laws. UKIP, US Republicans, French National Front, Identity Ireland, none of them are willing to answer that.
Lunatic
And to think this is the dude Mr Noonan and an entourage of diddly di dancers lined out on the red carpet for, in Shannon? I still cringe at that image.
Trump actually laid all that out for himself.
So he pulled Noonan out of Gouldavoher to parade around the tarmac in Shannon? Stop now Tadhg.
Trump – that’s a Cherokee name, right?
It’s funny that you chose Cherokee.
The Cherokee are located in the Southeast of the US. Yet they speak an Iroquoian language, signifying that their ancestors likely migrated south from the Great Lakes region into an area where other tribes existed prior to them.
“Native American” is a catch all term covering hundreds of extant and extinct tribes, with cultures and traditions as diverse as those in any other part of the world. They migrated, invaded, annihilated, assimilated and diverged just as Africans, Europeans, Asians and anyone else you care to mention have over the course of a million years of human history.
The notion that Native Americans are the only legitimate inhabitants of the US doesn’t do justice to the complicated and nuanced history of human migration on both a local and global scale.
We’re all descended from migrants, even the “natives”. But that doesn’t mean we’re all illegal.
so if, as you say, we are all descended from migrants (a point I agree on), isn’t it hypocrisy for descendants of one set of migrants to ban the descendants of another? is todays mobile global population not merely another nuance of human migration?
It is indeed hypocrisy. Migration is such a part of human history and development that the notion that we shouldn’t be allowed to do it is preposterous. As Bryon Gysin said, we’re here to go.
My point is that “Native Americans” are no more the legitimate inhabitants of the US than anyone else.
If only we could introduce some of those policies here.
His reason for scrapping the J1 is hard to disagree with – his target was corporates who seek to exploit non American youth labour while the boyz from the hood get no breaks.
We also voted for non automatic citizenship at birth.
Which was a good move.
This is a meme that is doing the rounds about Trump at the moment ..
Meet the Press 16/8/2015
Chuck Todd ” Who do you talk to for military advice right now ?”
Trump : “Well,I watch the shows,I mean,I really see a lot of great ,you know,I watch your show,and all the other shows,and you have the generals,and you have certain people that are great .”
Do they not know that America is a nation founded by immigrants?
“remuse back???? Does he mean résumé? lol He says “Real immigration reform puts the needs of working people first – not wealthy globetrotting donors.” I think he will find that the Irish students are definitely not globetrotting donors.(https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform)
Someone would want to put him down
Does anyone care to point out the behaviour of US policy abroad, students getting pissed and running amok appears to fit right in with that policy and history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_crimes#Crimes_perpetrated_by_the_United_States
http://www.the-philosopher.co.uk/whocares/popups/warcrimes.htm
The good guys ?, the USA a country responsible for more death than Nazi Germany so it doesn’t matter who the tyrant in charge is.
Can we please have one article where somebody doesn’t bring up Nazi Germany?!
“Springtime for Hitler and Germany.”
Don’t be stupid, be a smartie. Come and join the Nazi party!
If I was in America,?i would always be more inclined to vote republican.
But seriously Donald , take the day off.
Damm phone. I meant space not questions mark !!!
pity you weren’t
Do you call your phone “mark”?
America has a serious illegal immigration problem that needs to be dealt with but I don’t think Donald Duck is the man to do it.
Trump inherited a very profitable company and managed to run it into the ground and was only bailout out by the banks on the bases that he had no managerial input to it. What do people think he’ll do with a floundering superpower?
Best case he does little and lets his far more capable cabinet run the office, worst case, he turns the US into a diplomatic pariah, the Great Recession turns into the Second Great Depression and the US becomes stuck in several military quagmires.
If he makes it to the White House… Lol
The only reason he is high in the polls is because of the insane amount of media coverage he has due to his name and controversial views (even for a republican), let’s see where he is after the first round..
this the same trump who bought up Doonbeg and was welcomed by Noonan at Shannon airport?
I always find it interesting when you have someone harp on about immigration, especially when they are the son of an immigrant.
While America probably does need some reform for immigration, Trump’s policies are totally backwards. The J1 visa isn’t only a chance at a piss-up. It’s a chance to start making contacts with companies, so you’ve a better chance at acquiring a H-1B visa (long-term work permit) when you finish your studies.
It’s also a visa system that allows American students to visit Europe, and travel legally here with all the bilateral agreements with various EU countries. It’s a system of mutual benefit.
Let Trump cut the US off from the rest of the world. Let’s see how the young people of the US feel about him when they are no longer able to travel around the world, because Trump severed all these visa programs.
Trump has as much chance of being president as Paul Murphy has of being Taoiseach.
Trump 2016!!!!!!!!!!
At present there are 232,000 J1 visa holders in the USA this year from a variety of countries. That would be a helluva lot of temp jobs for American kids.
He must not see the amount of money students and people on J1 visas spend in the states. I have done a J1 twice, and spent near $6-8000 in attractions, shopping, accomdation and more. Its a goldmine for their economy!
Maybe we should scrap Donald trump instead of the J1 visas.
ft
ONLY Trump can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/IrelandUK4Trump2016
What makes a nation great is its people?
So no more Irish in the U.S.
have your say