{"id":460467,"date":"2026-02-10T16:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/460467\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:44:07","slug":"irish-man-held-in-ice-detention-says-he-fears-for-his-life-and-asks-ireland-for-help-ice-us-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/460467\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish man held in ICE detention says he fears for his life and asks Ireland for help | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Irish man who has been held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for five months despite having a valid work permit and no criminal record<\/a> says he fears for his life and has appealed for help from Ireland\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

Seamus Culleton said conditions at his detention centre in Texas were akin to \u201ctorture\u201d and that the atmosphere was volatile. \u201cI\u2019m not in fear of the other inmates. I\u2019m afraid of the staff. They\u2019re capable of anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking from the El Paso facility to Ireland\u2019s RT\u00c9 radio<\/a>, Culleton implored the taoiseach, Miche\u00e1l Martin, to raise his case with Donald Trump when he visits the White House next month for St Patrick\u2019s Day celebrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust try to get me out of here and do all you can, please. It\u2019s an absolute torture, psychological and physical torture,\u201d Culleton said, adding he did not know how much more he could take. \u201cIt\u2019s just a horrible, horrible, horrible place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally from County Kilkenny, Culleton, 42, runs a plastering business in the Boston<\/a> area. After buying supplies at a hardware store on 9 September 2025 he was followed by ICE agents and arrested.<\/p>\n

Culleton entered the US in 2009 on a visa waiver programme and overstayed the 90-day limit but after marrying a US citizen, Tiffany Smyth, and applying for lawful permanent residence, he obtained a statutory exemption that allowed him to work, according to his lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The detention prevented him from attending the final interview in October for his green card that would have confirmed his legal status, said Okoye. \u201cIt\u2019s inexplicable that this man has been in detention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Culleton\u2019s wife in Massachusetts<\/a> and family in Ireland went public with his story this week in hope of galvanising support for his release.<\/p>\n

Culleton told RT\u00c9 he had been locked in the same room with 71 other detainees in squalid conditions and with insufficient food and negligible time outside for fresh air, sunshine or exercise.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen on a day-to-day basis. You don\u2019t know if there\u2019s going to be riots, you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. It\u2019s a nightmare down here.\u201d Showers and toilets were \u201cfilthy\u201d and daily meals were child-sized, he said. \u201cSo everybody is hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Culleton said he was trying to stay positive. \u201cI try my best. I talk to my wife every day, she\u2019s my rock. I talk to my mother and sister most days. They\u2019re all rooting for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Culleton appealed to Irish authorities to intervene. \u201cMy own family in Ireland<\/a> is also suffering, my mother especially, she is heartbroken. Just do as much as you can to try and get me out of here, please. I just want to get back to my life, we were so desperate to start a family.\u201d He asked the taoiseach to raise his case with Trump at the White House next month. \u201cI\u2019ll take any help I can get now at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance via the Irish consulate in Austin, Texas, and that the embassy in Washington was engaging with the US Department of Homeland Security at a \u201csenior level\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on his way to a cabinet meeting, the taoiseach said he hoped Culleton would be released and expressed concern at the conditions of his detention. Martin did not say whether he would raise the case with Trump.<\/p>\n

The case could complicate Dublin\u2019s effort to avoid provoking the White House, which has lambasted Ireland over its record on corporate tax, trade and immigration. Some opposition parties have urged the taoiseach to shun the US president in protest at his domestic and foreign policies.<\/p>\n

Culleton\u2019s lawyer said US authorities were threatening to deport him \u201cany day\u201d and that the fifth court of appeals in Texas, which was handling his case, was the \u201cleast immigrant-friendly\u201d court. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason why the government shouldn\u2019t just release him and allow him to attend the [green card] interview that will confirm his legal status,\u201d said Okoye.<\/p>\n

Figures released on Monday showed that less than 14% of almost 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE in the first year of Trump\u2019s second term had charges or convictions for violent criminal offences, undercutting an administration claim to be targeting \u201cthe worst of the worst\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Irish man who has been held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for five months despite having…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-460467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}