A High Court judge has expressed surprise that US nationals can enter Ireland without a visa while Irish citizens travelling to the US have to tell immigration officials everything, including intimate personal details. Mr Justice Paul Butler made the remark during a challenge by a US citizen to the legality of his detention at Dublin Airport by Irish immigration officials. Ms Eileen Barrington, counsel for the Minister for Justice, had told the judge US nationals did not require visas to visit Ireland.
Judge Butler heard that former international polo player and US stockbroker Mr Alberto William Van Der Mije, of East 56th Street, New York, was wanted in the US in connection with an alleged fraud and had flown to England last September.
He had been refused entry but had lived in London for a year while he unsuccessfully challenged the decision of the British immigration authorities. At the same time an attempt by the US authorities to extradite him from Britain had failed in the British courts.
Ms Barrington told the court that Mr Van Der Mije was deported from Britain last Saturday. He was taken to Cuba, which refused him entry and put him on a flight to Madrid. From there he had flown to Dublin.
Mr Van Der Mije told the court he had travelled from Madrid to Ireland to obtain a visa from the British embassy to enter Britain, where his daughter was attending college and his partner resided.
Mr Justice Butler said immigration officials had concluded that Mr Van Der Mije intended travelling on to the UK where he was not accepted. He held that his detention was lawful.
Mr Van Der Mije will now be sent back to Madrid.