A Kilkenny man who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years, is married to a U.S. citizen and who has legal working status has been held in an ICE detention facility in Texas for over five months.
And he is describing his experience as "a torture."
“I don’t know how much more I can take,” Seamus Culleton said, calling for Taoiseach Micheál Martin to raise his case with President Donald Trump during his Saint Patrick's Day visit to the White House.
Originally from Glenmore, Co Kilkenny, Culleton, according to an Irish Times report, is married to a U.S. 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."
Culleton's situation was first reported in the Irish Times but has since been reported by multiple media outlets including RTÉ Radio and the Guardian's U.S. edition.
Culleton first entered the U.S. in 2009 under the Visa Waiver Program and overstayed. In more recent times he has been moving to fully legalize his status but has clearly not succeeded.
Said Culleton of the detention center: “It’s just a horrible, horrible, horrible place,” he said of his detention camp. I’m not in fear of the other inmates. I’m afraid of the staff. They’re capable of anything.”
“I try my best. I talk to my wife every day, she’s my rock. I talk to my mother and sister most days. They’re all rooting for me, I know that.”
Asked what his message to Irish politicians would be, he said: “Just try to get me out of here and do all you can please. It’s an absolute torture, psychological and physical torture. I just want to get back to my wife. We’re so desperate to start a family.
“I’d be so grateful if we could just end this. I’ve been detained now for five months. It’s just a torture, I don’t know how much more I can take,” he said, as his voice broke on the line."
According to the Irish Times account the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that it was aware of the case and had been providing “consular assistance” through the Irish consulate in Austin.
“Our Embassy in Washington, D.C. is also engaging directly with the department of homeland security at a senior level in relation to this case,” a spokeswoman said.
A government spokesman said that the Taoiseach had been briefed about the case and reiterated the Department of Foreign Affairs’ statement about the efforts being made at a national level.
However, officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the government would not be able to influence the legal processes in the US, but would continue to offer whatever assistance they could
Kilkenny TD John McGuinness said that he had asked the Taoiseach to intervene in the case.
“I’ll be asking for an immediate response in terms of contacting the White House,” he said. He said that the consulate in Austin was doing all they can, “but it’s really at a higher level that we need an intervention now”.
“Action is required now,” McGuinness said.
On Wednesday, February 11, the Irish Time was reporting: "Seamus Culleton, the Irishman living in the United States who is being detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) service, entered the US in 2009 as a tourist, according to a court ruling in Texas, where he is being held.
"Culleton – who is married to a US citizen, has a work permit and was applying for a marriage-based green card – was unsuccessful in an application brought before the district court in El Paso aimed at securing his release.
"In her ruling on January 23rd, Judge Kathleen Cardone noted that Culleton had entered the US under a visa waiver programme that allowed visits of not more than 90 days.
Under the programme, beneficiaries 'waive any right ... to contest other than on the basis of an application for asylum, any action for removal' from the US."
In a subsequent story on February 12 the Times reported that Culleton had been facing drug charges in Ireland at the time of his departure for the United States.
