Irishman who complained of 'torture' after being detained

An Irishman who complained of ‘torture’ after being detained by US ICE agents had overstayed his 90-day visa that had been issued in 2009.

Seamus Culleton, who had lived in the US for over two decades while building a life in the Boston area, entered the country on a tourist visa waiver that allowed him to stay for just three months, according to a Texas court ruling.

Despite marrying a US citizen and applying for a marriage-based green card, the plasterer’s attempt to secure his freedom was dismissed by a federal judge in El Paso, where he is currently being held.

In a January 23 ruling, Judge Kathleen Cardone said the visa waiver programme Culleton used meant participants give up the right to challenge deportation, except on asylum grounds.

Under the scheme, she noted, entrants ‘waive any right… to contest other than on the basis of an application for asylum, any action for removal’ from the US.

The waiver was designed, she said, ‘to enter the country expeditiously while streamlining their removal’.

The judge also cited a 2009 precedent, stressing that the waiver still applies even when ‘an individual has a pending adjustment of status application on the basis of their marriage to a US citizen’.

Culleton confirmed during the case, which began in November, that he was not seeking asylum.

Seamus Culleton, who had lived in the US for over two decades while building a life in the Boston area, entered the country on a tourist waiver that allowed him to stay for just three months, according to a Texas court ruling

Speaking publicly about his detention, Culleton said he was struggling to cope with the psychological and physical toll of being locked up for nearly five months

The man, originally from Glenmore in Co Kilkenny, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last September.

Court documents reveal he was arrested after police carried out a license plate check on his vehicle outside a Home Depot in Massachusetts.

He was initially taken to a detention facility in Buffalo, New York, before being transferred to an immigration enforcement centre in El Paso, where he remains.

In October, an immigration judge ordered that he be released on a $4,000 bail, which was paid by his wife, Tiffany Smyth.

But the decision was later overturned after authorities argued that visa waiver entrants are not entitled to bail.

On November 14, Culleton was served with an order of removal for violating the terms of his entry to the US.

A deportation officer told the court he remembered serving the order because it was unusual to encounter an Irish detainee.

Judge Cardone said Culleton could challenge his detention again if it became excessively long, but added the court had no reason to believe ‘that his removal to Ireland will not be promptly effectuated’.

She said he could bring a fresh application if he was still detained six months after receiving the removal order.

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The judge also criticised ICE for errors in the case, including mistakenly classifying him as having entered on a different visa, which led to the bond hearing.

‘These mistakes muddy the record and undermine faith in the system,’ she said.

‘Undoubtedly they also caused great agony for Culleton and his wife, who thought for a moment that he would be released on bond and thus permitted to adjust his status.’

Culleton’s sister Caroline said her brother moved to the US during Ireland’s post-crash construction slump.

‘He stayed there, and it materialised from there, and that’s where we are now,’ she told The Irish Times.

She said he married in April 2025 after dating his wife for several years, and that his immigration status only became an issue after Donald Trump returned to the White House.

The US Department of Homeland Security insists he has been treated fairly throughout the process.

‘On September 9th, 2025, ICE arrested Seamus Culleton, an illegal alien from Ireland,’ said Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at the department.

‘He entered the United States in 2009 under the visa waiver programme, which allows you to stay in the US for 90 days without a visa.

‘He failed to depart the US. He received fully due process and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on September 10th, 2025.

‘He was offered the chance to instantly be removed to Ireland but chose to stay in ICE custody, in fact he took affirmative steps to remain in detention.

‘Being in detention is a choice,’ she said. ‘We encourage all illegal aliens to use the CBP Home app to take control of their departure.

Culleton was arrested on September 3, 2025, and transferred to an ICE facility in Texas, where he remains in custody while his immigration case winds through the US legal system

‘The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now.

‘We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the US the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.’

McLaughlin also dismissed criticism of the Texas detention facility where Culleton is being held, amid calls from human rights groups for it to be shut down.

‘False,’ she told CBS News in a statement. ‘Ice has higher detention standards than most US prisons that hold actual US citizens.’

It comes after Culleton spoke publicly about his detention, saying he was struggling to cope with the psychological and physical toll of being locked up for nearly five months.

‘I don’t know how much more I can take,’ he said, urging Irish Premier Micheal Martin to raise his case with President Donald Trump during his upcoming visit to Washington.

In an emotional appeal to Irish politicians, he said: ‘Just try to get me out of here and do all you can, please. It’s an absolute torture, psychological and physical torture. I just want to get back to my wife. We’re so desperate to start a family’.

He added that while he was not afraid of other detainees, his fear lay elsewhere: ‘I’m not in fear of the other inmates. I’m afraid of the staff. They’re capable of anything.

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‘I’d be so grateful if we could just end this. I’ve been detained now for five months. It’s just a torture,’ he said.

Describing conditions inside the detention centre to The Irish Times, he said: ‘It’s just a horrible, horrible, horrible place’.

He said there were 72 people in a tent the size of 16ft by 35ft room with no ceiling, with two rows of bunk beds on either side and a long table down the middle.

Culleton described the conditions at the camp as ‘filthy’, the toilets and showers as ‘nasty’, and that illnesses are rife among those being detained.

He said there was competition for food and said he had ‘definitely’ lost weight.

‘There is no real quality of life here. I’ve been locked in the same room now for four and a half months,’ Culleton told RTE’s Liveline programme.

‘I’ve had barely any outside time, no fresh air, no sunshine. I could probably count on both hands the amount of times I’ve been outside’.

Friends and family have urged him to stay positive, but he admitted morale is difficult to maintain.

‘I try my best. I talk to my wife every day; she’s my rock. I talk to my mother and sister most days. They’re all rooting for me, I know that’.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed it was aware of the case and had been providing ‘consular assistance’ through Ireland’s consulate in Austin, Texas.

‘Our Embassy in Washington, DC is also engaging directly with the Department of Homeland Security at a senior level in relation to this case,’ a spokeswoman said.

A Government spokesman said the Taoiseach had been briefed and reiterated that diplomatic efforts were ongoing.

However, officials speaking anonymously acknowledged that Ireland has limited influence over US immigration proceedings, though assistance would continue.

Local TD John McGuinness said he had personally raised the matter with the Taoiseach and was seeking urgent intervention.

‘I’ll be asking for an immediate response in terms of contacting the White House,’ he said.

In an emotional appeal to Irish politicians, Culleton said: ‘Just try to get me out of here and do all you can, please. It’s an absolute torture, psychological and physical torture. I just want to get back to my wife. We’re so desperate to start a family’

He praised the Austin consulate but warned: ‘It’s really at a higher level that we need an intervention now. Action is required now’.

Culleton has been able to phone his mother daily from the detention centre, and has kept in close contact with his sister.

‘There are no words. I mean the way they’re being kept, and they’re locked up, and he’s only been allowed out a couple of times,’ Caroline said.

‘They don’t see the sunlight. They don’t get out. Their health deteriorates.’

She said he has lost an ‘awful lot of weight’, adding that he has sores, infections, and hair loss.

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She told the News at One programme that his ongoing detention was ‘heartbreaking for our mother’ and his extended family.

This week, his wife Tiffany managed to video call him for the first time since his arrest.

She said she did not hear from him for almost a week after an initial phone call following his arrest, and said she ‘did not know if he was deported’ and ‘had no idea if he was safe’.

Asked if she had been allowed to visit her husband, she said ICE officially allows visits, but it is ‘almost impossible to set one up’.

She had booked flights from Massachusetts to Texas to attend one of Culleton’s court dates, but the hearing was moved on the day before her journey.

‘He’s a good man. I don’t think anyone deserves this, but Seamus definitely doesn’t deserve this,’ she said.

Tiffany added that she had attempted to reach senators and Trump about the case but had received no response.