Seamus Culleton, the Irishman detained by ICE in Texas and pending deportation, has a much more interesting history than the one he and his supporters are flogging to the press. According to press accounts, our boy Seamus just overstayed a 90-day tourist permit allowed under the Visa Waiver Program by 16 years, and President Trump is a big, fat, meany for attempting to deport a hardworking and productive member of society. Well, an express delivery for our feckless media has arrived from Acme Corporation.
Unsurprisingly, one of the better synopses of the affair is by the open-borders, every-community-needs-a-crapton-of-immigrants fellows over at Reason.
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.
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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.
This story has gotten quite a bit of play because, as I theorize in Over-Hyped Stories Become Media's Favorite Weapon Against Immigration Enforcement – RedState, he's White, he speaks English, and he's not a criminal or vagrant. That makes him something of a "black swan event" in terms of the people ICE usually encounters. Because of his rarity, the media are seeking to make him, not a sheetrock hanger at the Home Depot parking lot, or a Somali fraudster, as the face of what is wrong with Trump's immigration enforcement program. As it turns out, sort of as it turned out with the story of the "Maryland dad" who was a wife-beating, MS-13 gang-banger, Seamus's story is a bit more, well, "nuanced."
According to The Irish Daily Mail, when Seamus hopped that airplane for the U.S. in 2009, he was much more a fugitive than a tourist.
Today, we’ve confirmed that Seamus Culleton who is being detained by ICE in the US was facing three charges relating to drugs offences.#ICE pic.twitter.com/JGW9cziOpx
— Garreth MacNamee (@garmacnamee) February 12, 2026
The District Court in New Ross, Co Wexford, issued the warrant in April 2009 in respect of Culleton, of Kilbride, Glenmore, Co Kilkenny, over the alleged possession of drugs, and possession of drugs for sale or supply, at Ballyverneen, Glenmore, in May 2008.
He was also facing charges of allegedly obstructing a garda during a search by throwing 25 ecstasy tablets on the ground.
A further warrant was issued by the same court in September 2009, in relation to an alleged criminal damage charge from September 2007 at Weatherstown, Glenmore.
The warrants remain in existence and Culleton has not since come to the attention of An Garda Síochána.
Bro. He had a bench warrant in Ireland for failure to appear in court for drug possession before fleeing to the U.S. pic.twitter.com/G9QEeFYcRi
— Tiffanie Tx (@tiffanie_tx) February 12, 2026
While Seamus may have turned over a new leaf in the U.S., he was fleeing arrest warrants on drug and vandalism charges in Ireland. This also explains why, when he spoke with the Irish embassy, he declined their offer to return to Ireland but asked them to help him get out of detention so he could stay in the U.S. It also explains why he has elected to spend nearly five months in a detention center rather than accept a free plane ride home.
Oddly enough, Seamus's actions after Trump's election and the long-overdue enforcement of U.S. immigration law may have sown the seeds of his deportation. In April 2025, he married his long-time girlfriend. In the same month, he applied for a green card. I don't know much about his love life, but it seems his decision to marry was closely tied to his desire to obtain a green card. The green card application seems to have triggered ICE interest, and it is not impossible that a rudimentary background inquiry with the Garda found he was wanted on felony warrants, which, The Irish Daily Mail helpfully notes, are still active.
Even though CBS would say that Seamus is a "non-violent" offender (see CBS's Attempt to Attack President Trump's Deportation Project Gets Harsh Response from Homeland Security – RedState), had his status been known, he would never have been allowed to enter the U.S, and he certainly would not have been allowed to stay.
More and more frequently, we are finding that the "cruel" application of immigration law is actually scooping up people we should not want in the U.S. We have enough homegrown criminals without being the sewage treatment plant for the rest of the world. I'm all in favor of rehabilitation, just not here. I want the illegals gone. Period.
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