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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 says he fears for his life and has appealed for help from Ireland’s government.
Seamus Culleton said conditions at his detention centre in Texas were akin to “torture” and that the atmosphere was volatile. “I’m not in fear of the other inmates. I’m afraid of the staff. They’re capable of anything.”
Speaking from the El Paso facility to Ireland’s RTÉ radio, Culleton implored the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, to raise his case with Donald Trump when he visits the White House next month for St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
“Just try to get me out of here and do all you can, please. It’s an absolute torture, psychological and physical torture,” Culleton said, adding he did not know how much more he could take. “It’s just a horrible, horrible, horrible place.”
Originally from County Kilkenny, Culleton, 42, runs a plastering business in the Boston area. After buying supplies at a hardware store on 9 September 2025 he was followed by ICE agents and arrested.
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.
The detention prevented him from attending the final interview in October for his green card that would have confirmed his legal status, said Okoye. “It’s inexplicable that this man has been in detention.”
Culleton’s wife in Massachusetts and family in Ireland went public with his story this week in hope of galvanising support for his release.
Culleton told RTÉ 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.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen on a day-to-day basis. You don’t know if there’s going to be riots, you don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s a nightmare down here.” Showers and toilets were “filthy” and daily meals were child-sized, he said. “So everybody is hungry.”
Culleton said he was trying to stay positive. “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.”
Culleton appealed to Irish authorities to intervene. “My own family in Ireland 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.” He asked the taoiseach to raise his case with President Trump at the White House next month. “I’ll take any help I can get now at this point.”
Ireland’s 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 “senior level”.
The case could complicate Dublin’s effort to avoid provoking the Trump administration, which has lambasted Ireland over its record on corporate tax, trade and immigration. Some opposition parties have urged the taoiseach to call off the White House visit to protest against Trump’s domestic and foreign policies.
Culleton’s lawyer said US authorities were threatening to deport him “any day” and that the fifth court of appeals in Texas, which was handling his case, was the “least immigrant-friendly” court. “There’s no reason why the government shouldn’t just release him and allow him to attend the [green card] interview that will confirm his legal status,” said Okoye.
It has emerged that Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar”, told the administration last year that aggressive and widespread immigration enforcement would erode public support.
Figures released on Monday showed that less than 14% of almost 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE in the first year of Trump’s second term had charges or convictions for violent criminal offences, undercutting an administration claim to be targeting “the worst of the worst”.
