US-wed Irishman with no criminal record detained for months in 'traumatizing' conditions

An Irish immigrant has been stuck in an ICE camp for months despite having a valid permit and no criminal record, per an interview he gave to The Irish Times, likening his surroundings to a "concentration camp" while his wife called the predicament "traumatizing."

Seamus Culleton is a resident of Massachusetts, originally hailing from the town of Glenmore in Ireland's County Kilkenny. He is married to a U.S. citizen and operates a plastering business, and has been in the final stages of obtaining a green card.

"My whole life is here [in the US]. I worked so hard to build my business. My wife is here," he explained to the outlet.

Despite having a valid Massachusetts driver's license and work permit, he was detained by ICE agents in September following a traffic stop. While at a holding facility in Buffalo, New York, Culleton refused to sign off on his own deportation, opting instead to tick a box indicating that he wished to contest his arrest. Culleton insisted that his permit to live and work in the U.S. is valid, and that he has no criminal record, "not even a parking ticket."

Following this, he was taken to an ICE facility in El Paso, where he has remained for months. Speaking with The Irish Times, Culleton said that he has "been locked in the same large, cold and damp room" for months now, along with roughly 70 other men, most of whom do not speak English. Most of the detainees spend their days starving, he explained, as food is only served to them in "child-sized" portions.

Culleton was unsparing in his description of his detention, calling it, "like a concentration camp, absolute hell."

"To know he was just taken, and he or I had no idea where they were taking him, was traumatizing," Culleton's wife, Tiffaniy Smyth, said.

In a November ruling, a judge approved Culleton's release on a $4,000 bond, which Smyth paid. Despite that, nothing happened, with the couple later finding out that the government had denied his bond without explanation. During an appeal process, his lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye, said that ICE officers claimed that he had signed documents agreeing to be deported, a claim that Culleton "adamantly" denied.

A judge ultimately sided with ICE over the deportation documents, leaving Culleton without recourse under U.S. law. He is, however, pressing for the alleged signatures to be examined by a handwriting expert.

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