Irish man Seamus Culleton held for months by ICE says he had U.S. work permit, and now fears for his life

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

Seamus Culleton, who lived in Boston, is being held at the El Paso Camp East Montana, an ICE detention facility inside the Fort Bliss Army base in Texas, according to the agency’s detainee locator system. Speaking to Irish state broadcaster RTÉ in a phone interview Monday from the detention center, Culleton described life at 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 characterized the detention facilities as “a bunch of temporary tents.”

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

“I have barely any outside time, no fresh air, no sunshine. We have two TVs on the wall. There are 72 detainees here in total. We get three meals a day, very very small meals — kid size meals, so everybody is hungry,” he said.

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

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which ICE falls under, denied the allegations about the conditions at the Texas facility on Tuesday, with Assistant DHS Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin telling CBS News in a statement that Culleton’s claims were, “FALSE. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. 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 then failed to depart the U.S. after the permitted 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 chance to instantly be removed to Ireland but chose to stay in ICE custody … A pending green card application and work authorization does not give someone legal status to be in our country.”

Under U.S. law, DHS can arrest people with pending immigration applications if they don’t have 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 would typically allow a green card case to play out.

McLaughlin said Culleton was offered a chance to be sent to Ireland “instantly.” She claimed he “chose to stay in ICE custody, in fact he took affirmative steps to remain in detention.”

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

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

“They asked me if I had a green card. I said I didn’t. I said I was married to a citizen and that I had a marriage-based petition in place and I was just about to receive my green 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 as the officers proceeded to detain him.

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

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

A spokesperson for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told CBS News 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 D.C. is also engaging directly with the Department of Homeland Security at a senior level in relation to this case,” the spokesperson said.

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