Wife of Irish man detained by ICE in Massachusetts pleads for his return: "I hope to get back to normal life"

An Irish man living in the Boston area, who is married to a U.S. citizen and is seeking a green card, has been in ICE custody for five months.

Seamus Culleton entered the United States in 2009 under a visa waiver program which allowed him to stay for 90 days. The Department of Homeland Security said he overstayed his time.

In April 2025, Culleton married Tiffany Smith. Smith said her husband is a plasterer and was detained by ICE after going to a Home Depot in Saugus, Massachusetts on Sept. 9.

"I think they spotted him in Home Depot and followed him and stopped him outside Home Depot," Smith said. 

Attorney says no criminal record

Smith and her lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye, said Culleton told ICE agents he had a marriage-based petition in place and was about to receive a green card. They said ICE agents ignored his claims and took him into custody.

Okoye said Culleton is a "model immigrant" with no criminal record.

"In Seamus's case, he came in 2009, his only immigration infraction is visa overstay," Okoye said. "That's what held him in custody for the past five months. It's inexplicable."

Smith said Culleton was quickly taken to Burlington, Massachusetts and then onto Buffalo, New York and finally to a facility in El Paso, Texas.

"It seems like they just wanted to get him out of Massachusetts as quick as they could," Smith said.

Okoye said Culleton was waiting to have an interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but that hasn't happened because he's in ICE custody.

Okoye said USCIS will not let his wife do the interview nor will they let him do it from custody. They said if he is let out, that USCIS can immediately speak with him.

"The fact that all of the policy memos from the USCIS support an adjudication of a green card petition even at this stage, and yet we don't have, you know, the discretion exercised in his favor is just something that is for me inhumane," Okoye said. "And especially that he has statutory protection, the fact that he qualifies as an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen."

Concerns about conditions in ICE facility

In a phone interview this week with Irish state broadcaster RTÉ, Culleton said he barely gets any time outside, no fresh air and is served kid sized meals.

"It's not good," Smith said. "I don't think anyone deserves to live like that."

She fears for his life, adding that he looked jaundiced when they finally saw him on a video chat two days ago.

"He has lost a lot of weight," Smith said. "Seamus was always a guy, he's like always making a joke no matter what situation, he's always goofing around, and it's just, I don't know, that's gone."

In a statement, Assistant DHS Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said Culleton is "an illegal alien from Ireland."

"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, 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."

McLaughlin said any claims about the conditions at the ICE facilities are false. "ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens," she said.  

For months, Smith did not see her husband at all and only talked over the phone. She said the facility in El Paso only got video conference call abilities recently.

She said the past five months have felt like five years.

"I hope to get back to normal life. I hope he can be released, just so we can finish what we started," Smith said. "We did it the right way, so at least just let us finish that."