'I just want him home', says wife of Irish man detained by ICE

Seamus Culleton was detained by ICE agents in September 2025

The wife of an Irish man being held in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in El Paso, Texas, has said she wants her husband "home where he belongs".

Tiffany Smith was speaking at a press conference when she described the experience as "overwhelming".

Her husband Seamus Culleton was detained by ICE in September 2025, while he was in the process of applying for his green card.

A US government spokesperson said Culleton was offered the chance to be sent to Ireland, but he "chose to stay in ICE custody" after he was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge.

On Wednesday Culleton's wife told reporters: "I want him safe. Seamus is a good man, he doesn't deserve what is going on. It's heartbreaking, it's absolutely heartbreaking".

"I don't know how I've gone on these past five months to be honest. It's been awful. I don't wish this upon anybody," she added.

Culleton's lawyer Ogor Winnie Okoye has called for his immediate release, and for him to be allowed to complete the process of applying for his green card.

Okoye said she saw him two weeks ago: "He did not look well, he looked like he had lost about 30-40 pounds. He looked yellow, like someone who has jaundice."

'Finish what we started'

Smith said she had last spoken to her husband "this morning".

"We have normal conversations, he asks me about my day, tells me to have a good day at work," she added.

"We're both just trying to stay positive".

She said the pair are hopeful they "can finish what we started".

"We tried to do everything the right way, that you're supposed to do".

"Let us at least finish that," she concluded.

Who is Seamus Culleton?

Culleton is originally from Glenmore in County Kilkenny.

He entered the United States in 2009 under the visa waiver program, which allows people to stay in the US for 90 days without needing a visa.

Culleton is married to a US citizen and owns a plastering business in the Boston area.

He has lived in the US for almost 18 years.

While he had previously been undocumented in the US, Culleton's lawyer said he was in the final stages of receiving his Green Card and had a valid work permit.

He was arrested on 9 September 2025, and has since been held at a number of ICE detention facilities, most recently in El Paso, Texas.

The detention facility is almost 4,000km from his home in Boston.

Speaking to RTÉ's Liveline from the detention centre, Culleton said he had been locked in the same room with 71 other detainees in what he described as squalid conditions and with insufficient food and negligible time outside for fresh air, sunshine or exercise.

"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. It's a nightmare down here."

He said showers and toilets were "filthy" and daily meals were child-sized, "so everybody is hungry".

Culleton said he was trying to stay positive: "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."

Taoiseach offers support

Speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said there are "five to six" cases of Irish citizens detained by ICE

He said the government's position is that they will do everything they can to help Culleton.

The Taoiseach added that efforts to assist him had to be done in a way that could really help him and be effective.

He added that it was important not to do anything to make Culleton's situation more difficult.

In a statement on Wednesday the Irish minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Helen McEntee, said she was "aware of this case and of the consular assistance being provided to the citizen involved, and his family, by our Consulate General in Austin, Texas, and our Consular Unit in Dublin".

"Our Embassy in Washington DC is also engaging directly with the Department of Homeland Security at a senior level in relation to this case," she added.

What have ICE said?

ICE is taking the lead in carrying out the Trump administration's mass deportation initiative

In a statement issued to BBC News NI, Department Of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, "On September 9, 2025, ICE arrested Seamus Culleton, an illegal alien from Ireland".

"He entered the United States in 2009 under the visa waiver program, which allows you to stay in the U.S. for 90 days without a visa. He failed to depart the U.S. He received full due process and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on September 10, 2025."

She said Culleton was offered the chance to be removed to Ireland but he "chose to stay in ICE custody, in fact he took affirmative steps to remain in detention".

"A pending green card application and work authorization does not give someone legal status to be in our country. Being in detention is a choice," she added.

McLaughlin added, "The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream.

"If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return."

BBC News NI also asked ICE about Culleton's claims that he was dealing with inadequate sanitary conditions and a lack of food in the detention centre Texas.

McLaughlin said: "These claim that there are subprime conditions at ICE facilities are false.

"ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens."