![\"Tiffany](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0bd1d89a-3e0c-40a0-b022-b00a72d8edce.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMr Culleton is originally from Co Kilkenny, but has been living in the US for almost 20 years\n<\/p>\n
Seamus Culleton said he would like Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin to raise his case with US president Donald Trump during his meeting at the White House in March for St Patrick\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
Mr Culleton is originally from Co Kilkenny, but has been living in the US for almost 20 years, has a valid work permit and is married to a US citizen.<\/p>\n
He was driving home after finishing work when he was detained by ICE agents last September.<\/p>\n
He said he noticed a man with blue sunglasses was driving the car and then several others appeared around him.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been locked in the same room now for four-and-a-half months<\/p>\n
Mr Culleton said he was asked if he had a green card and he said he did not, but said he was married to a US citizen, had a work permit and was due to receive his green card.<\/p>\n
Officers detained him and initially put him into a holding cell in Massachusetts before he was taken to New York then to the detention centre in El Paso in Texas, thousands of kilometres from his home.<\/p>\n
Mr Culleton claimed that ICE agents had tried to get him to sign deportation papers, which he said he \u201cabsolutely\u201d did not.<\/p>\n
He described the detention centre in El Paso as \u201chorrible\u201d, adding there was little sanitation, limited food and that it was \u201ctough to stay positive\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said he was in fear of his life from the security firm in charge, whom he said were \u201ccapable of anything\u201d, and said that it is not easy to predict what will happen.<\/p>\n
Mr Culleton said there were 72 people in a tent with no ceiling, with two rows of bunk beds on either side and a long table down the middle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tiffany Smyth and Seamus Culleton<\/p>\n
He described the conditions at the camp as \u201cfilthy\u201d, the toilets and showers as \u201cnasty\u201d and said illnesses were rife among those being detained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get three meals a day \u2013 very small meals, kid-size meals. It’s very hard to sleep at night with all the noise. So everybody’s hungry, everybody’s tired,” he told RT\u00c9 Radio One\u2019s Liveline on the phone from the detention facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve got no options to get extra food or anything like that, and the conditions here are filthy, the toilets, the showers, completely nasty, very rarely cleaned. There are no sanitation products. We’re often without hygiene products, shampoo and soap.”<\/p>\n
He said there was competition for food and said he had \u201cdefinitely\u201d lost weight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no real quality of life here. I\u2019ve been locked in the same room now for four and a half months,\u201d Mr Culleton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had barely any outside time, no fresh air, no sunshine. I could probably count on both hands the amount of times I\u2019ve been outside.”<\/p>\n
He said he would like Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin to bring up his case with Donald Trump during his St Patrick\u2019s Day visit to the Oval Office.<\/p>\n
Mr Culleton said his ordeal had been an \u201cabsolute torture”.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be so grateful if we could just end this ASAP. I\u2019ve been detained now for five months, locked in the same room for four and a half of those months. It\u2019s just torture. I don\u2019t know how much more I can take,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
“I just want to get back to my wife. We’re so desperate to start a family, my own family at home in Ireland is all suffering.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother, especially, she’s heartbroken that I’m in here. I talk to her most days. She’s just heartbroken over the whole situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t want her health to get any worse. She’s constantly worrying and stressing about me. It’s not fair on her. Just do as much as you can to try to get me out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Culleton, who has been in contact with the Irish consulate in Austin, Texas, said he is currently in \u201climbo\u201d, as he doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s next for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re known to hold people for long periods down here before deporting them, and especially me, because I have accused the ICE agents of signing my name without any real evidence to back it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may just hold me for months and months as punishment,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Irishman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/b379ea63-761b-4e64-b498-e1da61e498b0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Irishman Seamus Culleton with his American wife Tiffany Smyth<\/p>\n
News in 90 Seconds – 9th February 2026<\/p>\n
On the same programme, Mr Culleton\u2019s American wife, Tiffany, described the \u201cshock\u201d of his detention and the \u201cawful\u201d experience of trying to maintain contact with him. She said she did not hear from him for almost a week after an initial phone call following his arrest, and said she \u201cdid not know if he was deported\u201d and \u201chad no idea if he was safe\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked if she had been allowed to visit her husband, she said ICE officially allows visits, but it is \u201calmost impossible to set one up\u201d. She said she had booked flights from Massachusetts to Texas to attend one of Mr Culleton\u2019s court dates, but the hearing was moved on the day before her journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a good man. I don\u2019t think anyone deserves this, but Seamus definitely doesn\u2019t deserve this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Mr Culleton\u2019s sister, Caroline, said his family still does not know why he was detained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no words. I mean the way they\u2019re being kept and they\u2019re locked up, and he\u2019s only been allowed out a couple of times,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t see the sunlight. They don\u2019t get out. Their health deteriorates.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said he has lost an \u201cawful lot of weight\u201d, adding that he has sores, infections and hair loss.<\/p>\n
She told the News at One programme that his ongoing detention was \u201cheartbreaking for our mother\u201d and his extended family.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told the Irish Independent that Minister Helen McEntee is \u201caware of this case\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsular assistance is being provided to the citizen involved and his family by our Consulate General in Austin, Texas, and our Consular Unit in Dublin,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
“Our Embassy in Washington DC is also engaging directly with the Department of Homeland Security at a senior level in relation to this case,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr Culleton is originally from Co Kilkenny, but has been living in the US for almost 20 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[145,138,140,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-158812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-el-paso","10":"tag-el-paso-headlines","11":"tag-el-paso-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}