An Irishman described as “a model immigrant” was picked up by immigration agents months ago and tossed into a detention facility he compared to a “concentration camp.”
Seamus Culleton, who has lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years and is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested on his way home from work Sept. 9 despite carrying a Massachusetts drivers license and a valid work permit. He was briefly held in a facility in Buffalo, New York, before he was flown to another detention center in El Paso, Texas, reported the Irish Times.
“His work permit was issued as part of an application for a Green Card which he initiated in April 2025,” the newspaper reported. “He has a final interview remaining.”
Culleton was allowed to make a brief phone call to his wife Tiffany Smyth, who said she “broke down and cried to know he was just taken, and he or I had no idea where they were taking him. It was traumatizing.”
In Buffalo, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent asked him to sign a form agreeing to his deportation, which he refused to do and instead indicated he wished to contest his arrest because he was married to a U.S. citizen and had a valid work permit. Months later, he remains in detention in Texas, according to the report.
“He said he has been locked in the same large, cold and damp room for four and a half months with more than 70 men,” the newspaper reported. “He said detainees are constantly hungry because meals served at tables in the centre of the room offer only child-sized portions. Fights often break out over food, ‘even over those little child-sized juice containers.’ Toilet areas are ‘filthy.’”
A judge had approved his release on $4,000 bond, which his wife paid, at a November hearing, but they later learned the federal government had denied the bond without explanation. Culleton’s attorney appealed the case in federal court, where two ICE agents claimed that he had signed documents agreeing to his deportation – which he adamantly denies.
“My whole life is here,” Culleton said. “I worked so hard to build my business. My wife is here.”
The judge noted numerous irregularities on ICE court documents but ultimately sided with the agency, and he has no right to appeal that ruling under U.S. law.
“He would like the signatures to be examined by handwriting experts and believes a video of his interview with ICE in Buffalo would prove he refused to sign any deportation documents,” the Irish Times reported. “He has no idea what will happen now and said the waiting is ‘psychological torture.’ He says facility officials tried to get him to sign a deportation order last week, but he refused.”
His attorney Ogor Winnie Okoye said that a person in Culleton’s situation – holding a valid green card application based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen – would not have been detained before the current Trump administration, and she said the government has acted in an “inept” and “capricious” manner since he was picked up in a random sweep for immigrants.
“Here’s a gentleman who is a model immigrant,” Okoye said. “He owned a successful business, he’s married to a U.S. citizen.”
Culleton was properly going through the green card legal process, Okoye added, so it makes no sense that he would agree to be deported, and Culleton said his predicament made little sense.
“You have one section of the government trying to deport me,” Culleton said, “and another trying to give me a green card.”
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