Boston Man With Pending Green Card Application Held in ICE Custody for 5 Months

Seamus Culleton was detained despite being married to a U.S. citizen and having a work authorization permit. Now he’s asking the Irish government for help.

On Monday, an Irish national called into Ireland's RTE Radio from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in El Paso, Texas, and asked the Irish prime minister to intervene in his case. Seamus Culleton has been in ICE detention for five months despite having work authorization, a pending green card application, and no criminal history. 

Culleton entered the U.S. legally in 2009 on a visa waiver program and overstayed the visa's 90-day limit, according to The Guardian. After marrying his wife, Tiffany Smyth, he applied for lawful permanent residence and obtained a valid work permit, his lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye, told The Guardian. But that didn't stop immigration agents from arresting him, Culleton told RTE's Liveline. 

Culleton told Liveline that he was returning home after returning items to a Home Depot on September 9 when he noticed a suspicious car following him. After a few minutes, the car flashed blue lights to pull him over, and agents quickly surrounded him. Culleton said he complied with officers and explained that he is married to a U.S. citizen, has a marriage-based petition in place, and has a work permit. "None of that mattered," he said. "They cuffed me and took me away." 

After his arrest, Culleton said agents pressured him to sign deportation papers and are "tricking a lot of non-English speakers into doing this, for sure," he told Liveline. But, Culleton said he didn't sign anything. "I wasn't going to sign my rights away, my life away. Why would I do that?" he said. 

Culleton was eventually flown over 2,000 miles away from his wife to a detention facility in El Paso, Texas. Culleton described the conditions at the facility as "horrible," including "filthy" bathrooms, limited meals and time outside, and a fear of the staff who are "capable of anything." Culleton is detained in the same facility where a 55-year-old Cuban immigrant's death was ruled a homicide in an autopsy report, citing allegations that guards had allegedly choked and asphyxiated the detainee.

During the Liveline interview, Culleton asked the Irish government for help in ending his detention "ASAP." "It's an absolute torture, a psychological torture, physical torture," he said. "I just want to get back to my wife. We're so desperate to start a family." 

Because of his prolonged detention, Culleton was forced to miss his final green card interview appointment scheduled in October, Okoye told The Guardian. Although he was initially approved for release in November on a $4,000 bond, which his wife paid, his bond was later denied, reports Newsweek. When his attorney appealed, ICE agents claimed Culleton had signed documents agreeing to his deportation while in Buffalo, something Culleton told Liveline that he "absolutely" did not do. 

When asked about his detention, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Reason that after failing to depart the U.S. and receiving full due process, Culleton "was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on September 10," just one day after his arrest. "He was offered a chance to instantly be removed to Ireland but chose to stay in ICE custody, in fact he took affirmative steps to remain in detention," McLaughlin continued, and noted that "a pending green card application and work authorization does not give someone legal status to be in our country." 

Culleton's Liveline interview was successful in grabbing the attention of Irish politicians. In a statement, Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs said the Minister "is aware of [Culleton's] case," and that the "embassy in Washington, DC, is also engaging directly with the [DHS] at a senior level," reports The Independent. And Ireland's Labour leader, Ivana Bacik, called for Prime Minister Micheál Martin to secure Culleton's release immediately.  

Culleton's case shows the ongoing disjointed nature of President Donald Trump's immigration policy. Rather than arresting and deporting the "worst of the worst," the Trump administration has arrested and removed immigrants like Culleton who have no criminal record and who have lived and worked in the U.S. peacefully for years. This approach is just one reason why many Americans feel Trump's immigration enforcement campaign has gone too far.