Irishman Seamus Culleton held for months by ICE says he had a work permit in the United States and now fears for his life

An Irishman who has lived in the United States for nearly 20 years has been detained by U.S. immigration officials for nearly five months despite insisting he had a valid U.S. work permit and a pending green card case as the spouse of a U.S. citizen. Seamus Culleton has said he fears for his life due to conditions at the detention center where he is being held in Texas.

Seamus Culleton, who lived in Boston, is detained at the El Paso Camp East Montanaan ICE detention center inside the Fort Bliss military base in Texas, according to the agency’s detainee tracking system. In a telephone interview with Irish state broadcaster RTÉ on Monday from the detention centre, Culleton described life in the camp as a “nightmare”.

“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,” he told RTÉ. He called the detention centers “a bunch of temporary tents.”

Culleton said he had rarely been outside in the five months since his arrest.

“I barely have any time outside, I have no fresh air or sun. We have two televisions on the wall. There are 72 detainees here in total. We get three meals a day, very, very small meals, children’s meals, so everyone is hungry,” he said.

Culleton called the conditions “filthy” and said the bathrooms and showers were “completely disgusting” and “very rarely cleaned.”

The US Department of Homeland Security, which owns ICE, denied allegations about conditions at the Texas facility on Tuesday, with DHS Undersecretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin telling News themezone in a statement that Culleton’s claims were “FALSE. ICE has higher detention standards than most US prisons that house actual US citizens.”

McLaughlin confirmed that ICE agents arrested Culleton on Sept. 9, 2025, calling him “an illegal alien from Ireland” who entered the U.S. in 2009 under the tourist visa waiver program but was then unable to leave the U.S. after the allowed 90 days.

“He received full due process and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on September 10, 2025,” McLaughlin said. “He was offered the opportunity to be instantly removed to Ireland, but chose to remain in ICE custody… A pending green card application and work authorization do not give anyone legal status to be in our country.”

Under US law, DHS can arrest people with pending immigration applications if they have no underlying permanent immigration status, even if they have not been convicted of crimes, but under previous administrations, non-criminals with valid pending applications were rarely arrested, and officials generally allowed a green card case to develop.

McLaughlin said Culleton was offered the opportunity to be posted to Ireland “instantly”. She claimed that he “chose to remain in ICE custody; in fact, he took affirmative action to remain detained.”

Culleton has said he was going through the legal process to obtain lawful permanent residency, or a green card, and had a valid U.S. work permit when he was arrested. Spouses of U.S. citizens can obtain a work permit while their green card applications are being processed.

Culleton, a plasterer, said he was stopped by federal agents while driving home in early September after passing a store. He was initially followed by a blue Ford and then, “out of nowhere, it seemed like there were seven or eight cars and a group of officers at the window of the truck, telling me to roll down the window.”

“They asked me if I had a residence card. I told them no. I said I was married to a citizen and that I had a petition based on marriage and that I was about to receive my residence card and that I had a work permit to be here and work,” Culleton told RTÉ, adding that none of those details seemed to matter when officers moved to arrest him.

Culleton was taken into custody after “local police conducted a license check on his vehicle outside a Home Depot in Massachusetts,” court records from late January show.

Irish government estimates about a year ago suggested that as many as 10,000 undocumented Irish immigrants were living in the U.S. Many likely arrived on tourist exemptions or temporary work visas but then remained in the country illegally after those documents expired. effectively living in the shadows.

A spokesperson for Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told News themezone on Tuesday that Irish officials were aware of Culleton’s case and were providing consular assistance to him and his family.

“Our Embassy in Washington DC is also engaging directly with the Department of Homeland Security at a high level regarding this case,” the spokesperson said.

In December, the American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights groups released a letter demanding the closure of the ERO El Paso East Montana camp, alleging a pattern of abuses at the camp that included beatings and sexual abuse by agents against detained immigrants, beatings and coercive threats to force deportation to third countries, medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of meaningful access to counsel, among other alleged rights violations.