THE DEPARTMENT of Foreign Affairs has confirmed it has provided consular assistance to a number of students arrested in the United States on charges of modifying their passports.
The department said it had assisted a “small number of Irish nationals detained in the US for allegedly tampering with passports” in recent months.
The Union of Students in Ireland said some students in the US on J1 visas had placed laminates on passports to change their dates of birth so they could enter pubs and clubs. The US legal drinking age is 21, and many who are there on J1 visas are younger than this.
A spokesman for the department said the Irish Embassy in Washington and a number of consulates had been liaising with organisations involved in the J1 visa programme as well as colleges and student bodies in Ireland and emigrant support groups to ensure students were aware of the potential consequences of tampering with passports.
Tampering with or falsifying a passport is a criminal offence in Ireland but a federal offence in the US and can result in culprits being fined, imprisoned or refused future access to the country.
According to the US state department, individuals found guilty of passport and/or visa fraud face a minimum 10-year sentence for a first-time offence.
In Ireland it is an offence under Section 20 of the Passports Act (2008) to wilfully damage or destroy a passport, and any individual convicted could face a fine of up to €10,000 or a five-year prison sentence or both.
This month the Department of Foreign Affairs issued a warning that students in the US were modifying their passports. It called on any Irish national who had altered their passports not to travel on the document and to get it replaced. The warning said the laminate was “easily detectable” by border control, and attempts to remove it from a passport would damage it.
Speaking in Mullingar yesterday, US ambassador Dan Rooney echoed his government’s position in relation to the recent discovery of doctored passports.
“We think that the Irish and everybody else should obey the rules and regulations . . . if they are not of age then they shouldn’t drink. Those rules were put in for a purpose and they should not be broken by anyone, American citizens or Irish citizens.
“As far as changing the passports, that’s an Irish problem. The visa is our problem, it’s an American issue, but as far as the passports are concerned that’s an Irish issue and the Irish Government has to deal with that.”
He did not believe the issue has tarnished the reputation of the Irish in the US.