Irish man detained by ICE says he fears for his life in Texas facility, as Irish politicians urge action
An Irish man who has lived in the United States for nearly two decades says he is in fear for his life after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and transferred to a detention center in Texas, almost 4,000 kilometers from his home in Boston.
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Seamus Culleton, originally from Glenmore in Co Kilkenny, was taken into custody by ICE agents in September and later moved to a facility in El Paso, Texas, he told RTÉ’s Liveline from detention. His detention was first reported by the Irish Times.
“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,” Culleton said. “It’s a nightmare down here. I’m in fear for my life here.”
Culleton said he has been “locked in the same room for four-and-a-half months,” with barely any time outdoors. He described cramped, unsanitary conditions in a dorm housing 72 detainees, with “very, very small meals — kid size meals” leaving “everybody … hungry,” and toilets and showers that are “very rarely cleaned.”
He recounted being stopped on Sept. 9 after leaving a Home Depot and noticing a blue Ford following him. “It put on the blue lights and then out of nowhere it seemed like there were seven or eight cars,” he said. Officers asked for his green card, he said, and he explained he was married to a U.S. citizen, had a marriage-based petition pending and had recently received a work permit. He said he was handcuffed and taken away, and later pressed to sign deportation papers — which he refused.
“I had received the work permit about a month or so earlier, so as far as I knew I was covered,” Culleton said. “I guess when I got thrown in the holding cell in Burlington, Massachusetts, that’s when it kind of sunk in … that I might not be getting out of here.”
His wife, Tiffany Smyth, said she received a brief call the day he was detained: “He rang me and he said ‘don’t freak out’ … and he said ‘ICE picked me up.’ They let him make one phone call … under a minute.” She said she did not hear from him for almost a week and used an online ICE detainee tracker to locate him after he was moved from New York to Texas. A January court date was rescheduled at short notice, causing her to lose money on nonrefundable travel booked to attend, she said.
Culleton’s sister, Caroline, told RTÉ’s News At One he has no convictions in the U.S. or Ireland and that the family does not know why he was targeted. She said his work permit was part of a green card application that was “99% processed” and remains open pending a final interview.
The case has prompted calls for intervention from Irish lawmakers. Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness said “action is required now,” adding he has briefed the Taoiseach’s office and urged that the case be raised with U.S. authorities without waiting for St. Patrick’s Day. Social Democrats Senator Patricia Stephenson called the reported conditions “absolutely devastating” and a violation of Culleton’s human rights, and pressed the government for credible action to protect Irish citizens in U.S. detention. Labour TD Duncan Smith urged Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee to intervene and seek information from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on how many Irish citizens are detained.
Culleton appealed directly to Irish leaders for help. “I would love for you guys to just try and get me out of here, do all you can, please,” he said. He asked that Taoiseach Micheál Martin raise his case with President Donald Trump during the planned Oval Office visit next month. “I’ll take any help I can get now at this point,” he said. “It’s just a torture. I just don’t know how much more I can take.”
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
