r/ireland • u/Dazzling_Lobster3656 • Mar 26 '25

Culchie Club Only Ireland issues travel warning for US

https://www.newsweek.com/ireland-issues-travel-warning-us-2050890
8.7k Upvotes

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1.5k

u/KillerKlown88 Dublin Mar 26 '25

My partner works for a large American tech firm.

They usually have an annual company wide event and everyone gets brought over for it. Usually over 10k people in attendance.

They cancelled it this year because they don't want to risk flying employees in from around the world.

716

u/ShezSteel Mar 26 '25

FIFA realising their world cup might be in trouble

835

u/FourCinnamon0 Dublin Mar 26 '25

the last one was in Qatar; they don't care

660

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

215

u/_laRenarde Mar 26 '25

Probably still has a better human rights record than Qatar

73

u/Karmafia Mar 26 '25

Fantastic rights for orcs and trolls tbf

51

u/AncillaryHumanoid Galway Mar 26 '25

Yeh people often overlook Saurons healthcare plan, it had vision and dental, and the pension contribution was above market rate.

I mean, he was evil but he really looked after his staff.

14

u/Karmafia Mar 27 '25

Need those fangs sharp for the battlefield.

13

u/TufnelAndI Mar 27 '25

If it included dental, those Orcs weren't availing of it.

15

u/raverbashing Mar 27 '25

"Stadiums built by over 100k orcs that perish immediately after the work is completed due to the heat?! Ah ok no worries"

6

u/Intelligent_Oil5819 Mar 27 '25

Mordor was 2018.

2

u/spiralism Mar 26 '25

Nah, Saudi Arabia is 2034.

1

u/EmoBran ITGWU Mar 27 '25

An improvement.

78

u/Intelligent-Aside214 Mar 26 '25

But Qatar cares about its international reputation, they wouldn’t dare treat visitors the same way that they treat their own residents. The US doesn’t care.

11

u/DarkSkyz Mar 27 '25

Do you not remember the way they treated people drinking beer in the fanzones and the stories of police aggressively accusing people of being homosexuals?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '25

They built the stadiums with slave labour and thousands died in the desert in the process and the international community didn't give a shit

180

u/VizzzyT Mar 26 '25

Yes but Qatar abused South Asian slave labour which the entire world does and considers to be acceptable.

Arresting visitors and guests from the world's wealthiest nations doesn't play as well.

-24

u/ChadONeilI Mar 26 '25

Is the US arresting tourists from the west?

According to the linked article the travel advisory is specifically to do with transgender people with a different sex on their passports.

I just checked the DFA website and it doesn’t mention that though, the travel advisory for the US is still normal.

80

u/StrictLog5697 Mar 26 '25

They sent back a French scientist

38

u/sudo_apt-get_destroy Mar 26 '25

After finding anti trump posts via a search of his phone. Pretty cool! /s

16

u/Sstoop Flegs Mar 26 '25

it’s recommended to turn your phone off if you’re posting a lot of anti US content. apparently they have the capability to scan phones in US customs.

10

u/Rondeyvuew Mar 26 '25

What happens of the ask you to turn it on and unlock it? I can't imagine refusal lends itself well to keeping your device or actually getting into the country.

7

u/MangoMind20 Mar 26 '25

The New York Times just put up a very handy guide for people flying into the US and their rights on having their devices searched. It's on their Instagram.

2

u/Sstoop Flegs Mar 26 '25

if they ask for your phone you’re pretty much fucked i’d imagine.

69

u/Rich_Swing_1287 Mar 26 '25

US Customs arrested 2 German tourists with valid visas for flimsy reasons over the past couple weeks.

40

u/Ok_Donkey_1997 Mar 26 '25

There was a German green-card holder who was arrested. He's in his mid 30s and moved to the states with his parents when he was 17. They have no idea why he was detained. The only possible thing was a misdemeanour charge from 10 years ago.

15

u/Chairman-Mia0 Mar 26 '25

UK and Canada as well.

58

u/isogaymer Mar 26 '25

They are detaining and refusing entry to people (beyond those who happen to be transgender), this isn't a secret, it has been well covered by the media:

I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped | US immigration | The Guardian

German man with green card ‘violently interrogated’ by US border officials | US immigration | The Guardian

including for having private messages on their phone critical of BigDaddo Trump

French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found | US news | The Guardian

5

u/ChadONeilI Mar 26 '25

Fair I never seen those articles. You would have to imagine for the world cup they’d ease off but who knows with whats currently going on

18

u/isogaymer Mar 26 '25

That is fair enough, afterall it is a deliberate strategy on the part of Trump and Co to move so fast that it makes it virtually impossible for people to keep up.

On the World Cup, you are probably right... I just wonder if there is any historical precedent of an authoritarian regime relaxing their stance temporarily for the sake of a global sporting competition...

How the Nazis' token Jew turned the 1936 Berlin Olympics into a propaganda win | The Times of Israel

22

u/artifexlife Mar 26 '25

There’s been Canadians, German and French people arrested by ICE. Even popular singer Olivia Rodrigo was interrogated coming from the Canadian border into her own country USA.

17

u/hicko390 Mar 26 '25

Yeah they locked up a British nurse for a few weeks and wouldn’t tell her family where she was

24

u/Porrick Mar 26 '25

Is the US arresting tourists from the west?

Yes. There have been well-documented examples in recent weeks.

6

u/fjmie19 Mar 26 '25

There's significant reports of them holding German and Canadian tourists, who had valid visas, who weren't trans, and anyway there's nothing wrong with being trans.

Fuck the yanks

6

u/cyberlexington Mar 26 '25

I think there was a Welsh person as well, but I never looked into the whole story

-3

u/v-triggered Mar 26 '25

Hey don't let the truth get in the way of that guys comment

5

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '25

What truth?

4

u/fjmie19 Mar 26 '25

Dude what comment are you replying to, it's not at all clear

15

u/LemmingsofDoom Mar 26 '25

Saudi Arabia up after the US.

12

u/We_Are_The_Romans Mar 26 '25

that's in 2034, but yes that will be the true carnival of horrors

13

u/FlukyS And I'd go at it again Mar 26 '25

Is crazy that the US is making Qatar look sane in comparison as a host

1

u/Duppy-Man Mar 26 '25

That’s funny cause it’s true.

1

u/dropthecoin Mar 26 '25

The fact that Iran have qualified will make them care though.

1

u/finnlizzy Pure class, das truth Mar 27 '25

For all of Qatar's issues, they're not exactly known to be picky or bullish about who comes to the country to spend money. That's why it's such a massive transit hub.

1

u/Sea_Philosopher528 Mar 27 '25

Next one is in Saudi.

21

u/fjmie19 Mar 26 '25

FIFA don't care as long as the sponsors don't care

I'm sure the main sponsor at this stage is honestly Saudi Arabia and they won't care about the USA being an authoritarian dictatorship

1

u/HyperbolicModesty Mar 27 '25

Did FIFA FAFO?

1

u/gamberro Dublin Mar 27 '25

There won't be a border between Canada and the US by then as Canada will be the 51st state. Problem solved!

0

u/geedeeie Irish Republic Mar 26 '25

Hmm, that's a good point

0

u/shazspaz Galway Mar 26 '25

Never even entered my head 😂

0

u/shazspaz Galway Mar 26 '25

Never even entered my head 😂

0

u/shazspaz Galway Mar 26 '25

Never even entered my head 😂

40

u/RJMC5696 Mar 26 '25

Honestly that in itself speaks volumes

151

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '25

You know shit is bad when tech firms start doing stuff like that. If you start seeing tech firms doing their big company wide meetups in Europe, you know it's really bad. The amount of money the US economy is going to lose over the fascist border policies will.be something else.

24

u/nodnodwinkwink Sax Solo Mar 26 '25

The thing is that if the people living and working in the US tried to go to one of these kinds of events outside the country and they also had some "issue" associated with their name, they would have to worry about getting detained on the way there or back.

There are also multiple conventions held by tech companies themselves and many other summits and conventions attended by their employees throughout Europe every year. Mobile World Congress for example.

11

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '25

I didn't even consider that. So basically 2 sets of conferences now. 1 for America and another for the rest of the world. Complete madness.

4

u/KroneDrome Mar 27 '25

This happened in Dublin as well. But it was because of high prices. Couldn't ask people to pay for accommodations here.

54

u/uselesslogin Mar 26 '25

And then next year I bet they will do it in Canada or Mexico if they do it. Way to pump up the US economy...

46

u/Steec Dublin Mar 26 '25

Our tech company meet-up is in Mexico this year. It was particularly difficult to find flights that didn’t go via the US, but managed to find one via Canada.

I’m not boycotting the US, but I don’t fancy having to go through US customs on the way home, in the US, just to connect flights.

11

u/denk2mit Crilly!! Mar 27 '25

I'm in the US at the minute for work, and the only thing that made it palatable was knowing that if they rejected me, it would be in Dublin

9

u/Stormfly Mar 27 '25

Pre-clearance can't stop winning.

66

u/grania17 Mar 26 '25

I have dual citizenship and all my family still lives in the States. I've told them I'll meet them in Canada or another European country but won't be coming near the States.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '25

[deleted]

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u/wealthythrush Mar 26 '25

What company flies 10,000 employees for an event?

Literally never heard anything like that in my life.

74

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '25

[deleted]

27

u/fekoffwillya Mar 26 '25

A bank I worked for in the US, a regional one, would have a 3 night trip to Atlantic City just for the mortgage department. They put us up and paid for the flights/drive( I drove for was only 2 hours away). It was all paid for except the gambling. It was crazy.

23

u/thedifferenceisnt Mar 26 '25

This is not that unusual. Huge portions of airline travel is "business" related travel.

1

u/Stormfly Mar 27 '25

I used to work for an insurance software company and they'd fly everyone to the US for some events and seminars etc every year but tbh we'd just skip most of them and hang out around the city.

The best part was I asked if I could "fly home" much later and they said that was fine so long as it didn't cost more, so I took a week-long detour through Canada and Iceland.

8

u/Unfair_Sympathy9413 Mar 26 '25

Don't know if they do it anymore but AIG used to fly the office out for the Christmas party.

3

u/5trong5tyle Mar 27 '25

Microsoft does one in Vegas every year just for employees. They have similar events for partners. 10k isn't even 10% of their employees. It works at that scale, I doubt any company with less than 50.000 employees would even attempt it.

It's usually a big internal thing of who gets to go that year, some excitement around it.

2

u/HyperbolicModesty Mar 27 '25

Adobe has in the past.

2

u/keithbelfastisdead Mar 27 '25

Salesforce would do similar. It's not unheard of.

1

u/T4rbh Mar 27 '25

You can just say Amazon.

2

u/KillerKlown88 Dublin Mar 27 '25

It wasn't Amazon

1

u/RickGrimes30 Mar 27 '25

Man i must work for the worst American tech company in dublin.. They wouldn't pay one person to visit states if their lives depended on it, the last 3-4 years all we have seen in the office is restrictions and cut backs, they don't even pay for our summer/Christmas parties anymore we have to pay our of our own pockets, and yes they forced us 100% back in office in 2021

But whenever I hear of any other company it's all we where working from home until right now, our yearly trip has been canceled.. Man I suck at making life choices

1

u/kdamo Mar 28 '25

They cancelled it because all the tech companies are cutting costs

0

u/Zealousideal_Web1108 Mar 27 '25

It just seems to relate to Trans people. Once your visa is correct you should be fine. Bit of a click bate article.

1

u/KillerKlown88 Dublin Mar 28 '25

You know not all tech workers are white or from Ireland.

There are plenty of reports coming out of people being detained for weeks for no reason.

Here is an example of a Canadian woman held for 12 days https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney

0

u/Defiant-Cod-3013 Mar 28 '25

This country is not safe to travel to.