![\"Seamus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0023de29-614.jpg\"\/)
\nSeamus Culleton, pictured with his wife Tiffany, has been in custody for five months<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said yesterday that there were “five to six” Irish citizens being detained by ICE.<\/p>\n
Speaking on RT\u00c9’s Morning Ireland, Mr Mulhall said it was surprising that an Irish citizen would be held in detention for so long and that he is certain the embassy is doing all it can on Mr Culleton’s behalf.<\/p>\n
He explained that when he was an ambassador, the embassy received an annual report list from US authorities about the number of Irish people who had been deported.<\/p>\n
This number was always small, he said, and the embassy was also approached separately by a small number of Irish people for whom representations were made.<\/p>\n
Mr Mulhall said ICE is now a more difficult proposition to deal with.<\/p>\n
“ICE is, shall we say, a more uncompromising organisation than what we’ve known in the past, and it’s probably quite difficult to deal with people who are in ICE detention, because ICE doesn’t operate in the way that a normal authority would have operated during my time in the United States,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said that Mr Culleton’s case is gaining international traction and if it gets into the US media environment then it will refute the notion that everyone in ICE detention is a hardened criminal.<\/p>\n
This should bring it to a conclusion sooner rather than later, he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Mulhall added that it was absolutely untrue to say the Irish embassy has failed to build up contacts with both the Republican and Democratic parties.<\/p>\n
You have to have contact with both sides of the political aisle, he said.<\/p>\n
Former TD and special envoy to the US John Deasy said yesterday<\/a> that “this case is a really good example of the lack of contacts that we have in Washington and in America generally”.<\/p>\n “Politics doesn’t change, it’s about contacts, relationships and people knowing who is in power and turning that lever. Unfortunately, we do not have that kind of influence and access we used to have.”<\/p>\n In a post on X yesterday, the Assistant Secretary at Homeland Security said Mr Culleton entered the US in 2009 under the visa waiver programme, which allowed him to stay for 90 days without a visa.<\/p>\n Trish McLaughlin said Mr Culleton failed to depart the US after that time.<\/p>\n She said he was offered a chance last September to be “removed to Ireland, but chose to stay in ICE custody”.<\/p>\n Seamus Culleton received full due process and was issued a final deportation order from a federal judge.<\/p>\n On September 9, 2025, ICE arrested Seamus Culleton, an illegal alien from Ireland. He entered the United States in 2009 under the visa waiver program, which allows you to\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/EebjCaRBDK<\/a><\/p>\n