Journalists really must be the original high school theater kids because they are literally the most dramatic.
Seamus Culleton was arrested on September 9th, 2025, and has been in an Ice detention facility in Texas for nearly five months, despite having no criminal record, “not even a parking ticket” https://t.co/g4BKUlpQ3S
— The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) February 9, 2026
An Irishman living in the United States for more than 20 years has been held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials since being arrested last September.
Originally from Glenmore, Co Kilkenny, Seamus Culleton is married to a US citizen and owns a plastering business in the Boston area. He was arrested on September 9th, 2025, and has been in an Ice detention facility in Texas for nearly five months, despite having no criminal record, “not even a parking ticket”. In a phone interview from the facility, he said conditions there are “like a concentration camp, absolute hell”.
Culleton said he was carrying a Massachusetts driving licence and a valid work permit issued by the US government when he was pulled over by Ice on the way home from work in September. His work permit was issued as part of an application for a green card which he initiated in April 2025. He has a final interview remaining.
After his arrest, Culleton was allowed a brief phone call to his American wife Tiffany Smyth. She said she “broke down and cried. To know he was just taken, and he or I had no idea where they were taking him, was traumatising”.
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He overstayed a visa, was told to leave, refused to leave even when offered a trip back to his home country and so he was detained, but this apparently is communism or something.
Kafka meets ICE https://t.co/Ury7R8eWWQ
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) February 10, 2026
Someone get Susan a fainting couch and smelling salts stat!
Oh please. He was admitted on a 90 day visitor’s visa 20 years ago and never left. He was offered instant deportation to Ireland last year and declined so he’s awaiting his case in a detention center. His choice. Kafka? You undermine your own argument with such hyperbole. https://t.co/jU1sn5BwaV
— Gerard Baker (@gerardtbaker) February 10, 2026
It's like buying a week-long stay at a hotel and refusing to leave for decades and then being shocked when they finally use law enforcement to remove you.
That guy overstayed his visa….not my fault he’s a dummy who let that happen.
— E. Perez (@eplatina9) February 10, 2026
He can choose to self deport at any time. He is choosing to remain in detention.
— Lindy Manager (@PUREKIN0) February 10, 2026
Also he has been in detention that long ONLY because he wants to fight his deportation. We would have been happy to deport him back months ago.
— HoodlumDoodlum (@HoodlumDoodlum) February 10, 2026
Also, this dude is pasty white, so it kind of demolishes the Left's argument the Trump Administration only wants to deport brown and black bodies.
Sounds like he lived here for 20 years illegally.
— Terrible But Inevitable (@mr_mxyplyzyk) February 10, 2026
I am increasingly convinced that no actual writer for the New Yorker has read anything that they reference. Like no their is nothing Kafkaesque about being deported after over staying a visa by decades.
— Pharm Guy (@guy_pharm) February 10, 2026
He's an illegal alien. He doesn't belong here.
— cathandler2 (@cathandler2) February 10, 2026
Say it altogether now: 'Countries are allowed to have borders'.
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