'How gross': Department of Homeland Security makes statement on Kilkenny man in ICE custody

The situation of Glenmore native, Seamus Culleton, has taken another twist as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took to X to condemn comments he made about the condition of his detention facilities on RTÉ’s Liveline this week.

Mr Culleton, 38, has been detained at an ICE facility in El Paso, Texas since September after he was apprehended by agents in Boston for overstaying a 90 day travel visa. 

The Kilkenny man has been living undocumented in the US since 2009, but is married to an American citizen, owns a plastering business with a valid work permit and was in the process of applying for a green card and legal status.

Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, responded to this saying that “a pending green card application and work authorization does not give someone legal status to be in our country.”

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In an interview from the ICE facility with Kieran Cuddihy on Monday’s Liveline programme, Mr Culleton described filthy conditions, insufficient meals, rampant sickness and limited time outdoors, likening the facility to “modern-day concentration camp.”

The story has since garnered international attention with calls growing for Taoiseach Micheál Martin to raise the case with President Donald Trump during his St Patrick’s Day visit to the White House next month. 

DHS replied with a statement on its X account, which has almost three million followers, on Friday morning, taking issue with Mr Culleton’s ‘concentration camp’ comment; saying that his continued detention was “a choice.”

The tweet read: “How gross. Calling detention facilities a “concentration camp,” yet this individual (who was in our country illegally for 16 years) CHOSE to stay in detention for 5 months after he was issued a final deportation order and given full due process.”

“Being in detention is a CHOICE - we encourage every illegal alien to take advantage of the CBP Home app to self-deport and have the opportunity to come back to our nation the RIGHT way.”

Mr Culleton’s sister, Caroline, told RTÉ that her brother has “lost an awful lot of weight”, and has sores, infections and hair loss.

Another development occurred on Thursday when the Irish Times reported that Mr Culleton had an outstanding arrest warrant from a district court in New Ross over the alleged possession of drugs for sale or supply in 2008, the year before he left Ireland. He has no criminal record in the US.

His lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye, said that she was unaware of the drugs case until hearing about it in the media asserting: “A warrant is not a conviction, a warrant is not criminal entry, so I will leave it at that until I understand the specific facts of the case.”

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