Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
An Irish man was detained in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for five months and faced deportation despite having a valid work permit and no criminal record.
His lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye, said Seamus Culleton was an “exemplary immigrant” who had been the victim of a capricious and incompetent system.
Originally from County Kilkenny, Culleton has lived in the US for more than 20 years, is married to a US citizen and runs a plastering business in the Boston area. He was arrested in a random immigration sweep on his way home from work on Sept. 9, 2025, according to Okoye of BOS Law Group in Massachusetts.
After being held at ICE facilities near Boston and Buffalo, New York, he was flown to a facility in El Paso, Texas, where he shared a cell with more than 70 men. Culleton told the Irish Times that the detention center was cold, damp and squalid, with fights over inadequate food, “like a concentration camp, pure hell”. I first reported the story On Monday.
Culleton said he was carrying a Massachusetts driver’s license and a valid work permit issued as part of a green card application he started in April 2025 when he was arrested. He has one last meeting left.
When asked to sign a form agreeing to deportation at the Buffalo facility, Culleton said he refused and instead checked a box expressing his willingness to object to his detention on the grounds that he was married to U.S. citizen Tiffany Smyth and had a valid work permit.
At a hearing in November, the judge approved Smyth’s release on a $4,000 bail he paid, but authorities initially continued to detain Culleton without any explanation.
When his lawyer filed a motion in federal court, two ICE agents said Culleton had signed papers in Buffalo agreeing to be deported. Culleton said he disagreed and that the signatures were not his. “My whole life is here. I worked hard to build my business. My wife is here.”
The judge noted irregularities in ICE’s court documents but sided with the agency. Under U.S. law, Culleton cannot appeal, but he wants handwriting experts to examine the signatures and believes video of his interview with ICE in Buffalo will prove he refused to sign deportation papers.
Previous high-profile cases involving Irish people include Cliona Ward, who had a green card but was detained by ICE for 17 days because of a criminal record dating back more than 20 years. An Irish tech worker who overstayed his visa by three days and agreed to be deported has been sentenced to nearly 100 days in prison.
Culleton told the Irish Times he didn’t know what would happen next and the uncertainty was “psychological torture”. He said facility officials tried to get him to sign a deportation order last week, but he refused.
Okoye said the U.S. government had discretion to release his client and acted incompetently and capriciously toward an immigrant pursuing the green card process. “Here is an exemplary immigrant gentleman. He has a successful business, he is married to a US citizen.”
Smyth said she endured five months of heartbreak, stress, anxiety and anger. “I would never wish this on anyone or their family. I still pray for a miracle every day.”
After a video call with her husband on Sunday night (her first in five months), Smyth told Culleton’s family in Ireland that he had 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. Detainees are rarely allowed outside for exercise or fresh air, he said.
“It’s heartbreaking. We’ve talked about what he’s going through physically, but what about his mental health? How will he cope when he gets out? What effects will this have on him in the long run?”
Last week, the Irish government said the number of Irish citizens seeking consular assistance for deportation from the US had risen from 15 in 2024 to 65 last year, an increase of 330%.
