An Irish man who has lived in the U.S. for 16 years has been held by ICE since September despite his valid work permit and lack of a criminal record.
Seamus Culleton, originally from County Kilkenny in southeastern Ireland, was arrested by ICE agents at a hardware store in Boston during a random immigration sweep on Sept. 9, according to his attorney, Ogor Winnie Okoye.
Cullteon told The Irish Times, which first reported the story, that he was carrying a Massachusetts driving license and a valid work permit when he was pulled over by ICE on his way home from work.
Okoye told The Guardian that Culleton had entered the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program in 2009 and overstayed the 90-day limit. However, after he married his wife, Tiffany Smith, an American citizen, and applied for a green card last April, he obtained a statutory exemption that allowed him to work.
“He had a work-approved authorization that is tied to a green card application,” she told the outlet.
A few days after his arrest, he was flown to an ICE facility in Buffalo, New York. There, he was interviewed by an ICE agent who asked if he would sign a form agreeing that he would be deported.
Culleton said he refused, opting instead to contest his arrest on grounds that he had a valid work permit and was married to an American citizen. He was then transferred to an ICE facility in El Paso, Texas.
At a bond hearing in November, a judge approved Culleton’s release after Smith paid a $4,000 bond. However, the government denied the bond and continued to hold him, initially with no explanation.
When Okoye appealed to a federal court, two ICE agents said that Culleton signed documents agreeing to be deported. He said he hadn’t agreed and that the signatures weren’t his.
“My whole life is here,” he said. “I worked so hard to build my business. My wife is here.”
The judge sided with the federal agency despite acknowledging several irregularities in ICE’s court documents, according to The Irish Times.
Though he is unable to appeal under U.S. law, Culleton said he wants handwriting experts to analyze the signatures and says that a video of his interview with ICE agents and Buffalo would prove he never signed the deportation documents.
Culleton has remained in a federal detention facility in Texas for nearly five months, even though he has a squeaky-clean criminal record.
Culleton told The Irish Times in a phone interview from the facility that conditions there are “like a concentration camp—absolute hell.”
He said that he shares a cell with over 70 men at the detention center, and that there are often fights over the small food portions given to detainees, including “little child-sized juice containers.”
A GoFundMe for Culleton, organized by a family friend, said that he and Smith have spent over $15,000 on lawyer fees since his detention in September.
Culleton still has one final interview for his green card.
“It’s inexplicable that this man has been in detention. It does not make sense,” Okoye told the Guardian about Culleton, whom she called a “model immigrant.”
“There’s no reason why the government shouldn’t just release him and allow him to attend the interview that will confirm his legal status,” she added.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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