An Irish man spent five months in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and faced deportation despite having no valid work permit and no criminal record.
Seamus Culleton was a “model immigrant” who fell victim to a capricious and dysfunctional system, his lawyer Ogor Winnie Okoye said.
Culleton, originally from County Kilkenny, has lived in the US for over 20 years, is married to a US citizen and runs a plastering business in the Boston area. On his way home from work on 9 September 2025, he was arrested in a random immigration sweep, according to Okoye of BOS Legal Group. Massachusetts.
After being held in ICE facilities near Boston and in Buffalo, New York, he was moved to a facility in El Paso, Texas, where he shares a cell with more than 70 other men. Culleton said the detention center was cold, wet and miserable, and there were fights for enough food – “like a concentration camp, absolute hell”, he told The Irish Times. First reported the story On Monday.
Culleton said he had a Massachusetts driver’s license and a valid work permit issued as part of an application for a green card that began in April 2025 when he was arrested. He had one last interview left.
When asked to sign a form agreeing to deportation at the Buffalo facility, Culleton refused and instead said he ticked a box contesting his arrest, saying he is married to Tiffany Smith, a US citizen, and has a valid work permit.
At a hearing in November, a judge approved Smith’s release on a $4,000 bond, but authorities continued to detain Culleton without explanation.
When his attorney appealed to federal court, two ICE agents said Buffalo Culleton signed papers agreeing to deportation. Culleton disagreed and said the signatures were not his. “My whole life has been here. I’ve worked hard to build my business. My wife is here.”
The judge found irregularities in ICE’s court documents but sided with the agency. Culleton cannot appeal under US law, but he wants handwriting experts to examine the signatures and believes a video of his interview with ICE in Buffalo proves he refused to sign deportation papers.
There have been previous high-profile cases involving people from Ireland Clone Wardwho has a green card but was detained by ICE for 17 days on a criminal record from 20 years ago. Visiting Irish tech worker overstays visa for three days, agrees to deportation He was imprisoned for about 100 days.
Culleton told the Irish Times that he did not know what would happen next and the uncertainty was “mental torture”. He said facility officials tried to get him to sign the deportation order last week, but he refused.
Okoye said the US government has discretion to release his client and is acting inefficiently and capriciously towards an immigrant pursuing the green card process. “Here’s a gentleman who’s a model immigrant. He owns a successful business, he’s married to a US citizen.”
Smith said she endured five months of heartbreak, stress, anxiety and anger. “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone or their family. I still pray for a miracle every day.”
After a video call with her husband Sunday night — their first in five months — Smith told Culleton’s family Ireland He lost weight and hair and had sores and infections. “There’s no hygiene there. He’s been asking for antibiotics for the last four weeks,” his sister, Caroline Culleton, told RTÉ. Prisoners are rarely allowed to exercise or get air, she said. “It’s heartbreaking. We’ve talked about what he’s going through physically but what about his mental health? How will he deal with this when he gets out? What’s the long-term effect of that on him?”
Last week the Irish government said the number of Irish nationals seeking consular assistance over deportation from the US had risen from 15 in 2024 to 65 last year, a 330% increase.
