20-year illegal alien detained – and he’s Irish
I could not care less where this guy came from. Here’s the story:
An Irish national who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years has been detained for five months at a federal facility in Texas, where he compared conditions to a “concentration camp” without an end in sight.
In addition to being an illegal alien, he’s a Holocaust appropriator and an ignoramus about history.
More [emphasis mine]:
Seamus Culleton, a native of Glenmore, Ireland, said he’s been held at El Paso Camp East Montana in Texas since being arrested on September 9 despite not having a criminal record, The Irish Times reported Monday.
“Not even a parking ticket,” Culleton, 38, told the outlet during an interview from the facility.
Culleton described brutal conditions at the immigration detention center, which he described as “like a concentration camp, absolute hell,” according to the report.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Tuesday that ICE agents arrested Culleton in early September.
“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,” McLaughlin told Newsweek in a statement. “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. 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.”
And in fact there’s more. From Ace:
The only argument in favor of keeping this guy around is that he 1, applied for a Green Card and is here provisionally while his case is considered and 2, he got married to a US citizen.
But here’s the thing: He only took those two steps when he was about to be deported.
The left, and Nick Gillespie, are claiming “he has a valid work permit.”
But that was only issued on the basis of his sudden application for a green card.
Which he only applied for in 2025, when Trump was about to deport him.
What did he do for the 20 years prior as far as work or money?
Did he work illegally using someone else’s social security number? Did he just sit on welfare for 20 years?
Did he, perhaps, engage in an actual criminal trade?
But we have to pretend his entire record began exactly when he took two desperate, last minute steps to confabulate a fraudulent set of facts to avoid deportation.
From that Newsweek article, just to clarify:
“Being in detention is a choice,” McLaughlin continued. “We encourage all illegal aliens to use the CBP Home app to take control of their departure. 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.”
He had – and perhaps still has? – the chance to return to Ireland. And yet he chose to stay in a concentration camp. Go figure.
Oh, and this guy couldn’t be more wrong:
This is appalling and I hope cuts through to the ‘heritage American’ types who otherwise could care less about due process for immigrants …
Nobody on the right cares that he’s Irish. Also, he’s gotten due process.
“Oh Danny Boy, …..”
Bye.
There are a fair number of Irish illegals in the US. I met a few in San Francisco. On the web I see estimates from 10,000 to 50,000.
He’s full of shite and I don’t care if he’s Irish. Send him back.
Hopefully this sends a message to other illegals and their cheerleaders in the media: if this guy can get the boot, so can you. And you can do it easy way i.e. go home voluntarily or the hard way.
In all fairness, if he really does get deported, the Ireland he is being sent back to no longer resembles the place he left 20 years ago. Just like England, it’s being overrun by Middle Easterners and “Asians.”
First of all, I don’t give a rip where he comes from, the color of his skin, or how long he’s been squatting illegally on American soil. He. Must. Go. Back. The sooner, the better. And as far as that libertarian goof, Nick Gillespie, I would like to send him along. He, like most soi disant “libertarians” is merely a hedonistic, dope smoking and drug pushing, pseudointellectual jerk of the first water. He is a prime example of the type of person we would all be better off without.
huxley slightly OT –
There is a bar at n San Francisco I used to perform music in called Ireland’s 32. Because Ireland has 26 counties and Northern Ireland has 6 if you get the drift. They had a room upstairs from the bar where reportedly meetings of the IRA were held. Not individual retirement accounts.
There are a lot of Irish bars in that part of the city (actually all over). The Richmond district north of GG Park towards the beach.
Nobody on the right cares that he’s Irish.
My father had a certain negative attitude towards Catholics, which of course includes Irish Catholics. Perhaps because his ancestry was Protestant with a lot of Scots-Irish Protestant. 🙂
Didn’t stop me in my high school years from liking the music of Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers.
Deport him! When I worked in Latin America, I had to jump through the work visa hoops.
Nobody is Above the Law.
On repeat.
Rule of Law is needed for Democracy to work.
For Rule of Law you need to implement it so that
Nobody is Above the Law.
Ah, the music, the music….
(And the Blarney, the Blarney…. So quaint! So bold! So lovable….)
Indeed, sending Shameless to the UK might work—since I hear they’re takin’ ’em in by the boatload.
Oh…wait, he’s White…
Right. Hmm.
Ah, but maybe just maybe he’s BLACK Irish??… Now THAT oughta make ‘im a shoo in! (And he’ll probably be able to increase his chances if he claims he’s got a soft spot for the IRA…and Hamas…well, maybe just the latter.)
Our Legislative and Executive branches have not done their duties on immigration for at least 20 years. I think this is because most Americans agree with the laws as written, but our Legislators* do not. A lot of innocent-adjacent people are suffering due to the unpredictable nature of what laws will be enforced and when.
And the situation has been made worse by Democrats doing a Lucy football yank and breaking their promise after Reagan agreed to amnesty.
If I were a visitor in a foreign country I would never knowing violate their rules regarding my stay there, but I can understand why a lot of foreigners gave little attention to America’s immigration laws based on our long history of non-enforcement. What’s the current, average wait for an amnesty hearing? 7 years?
*Executive agreement has varied.
I know a number of non-Americans that explored the Green Card process so that they could work temporarily in the US, with longer-term options. They hit a wall when they found out that their income tax situation will become much more complicated, as a consequence. Almost all are flabbergasted when they discover they would be on the hook for any income earned anywhere in the world. ‘Whaddaya Mean !?!?!?!’, is invariably the outraged response, because it’s a fairly unique position among world governments. Uncle Sam likes his tax dollar revenue, and is an inflexible negotiator and a powerful and sometimes ruthless collector..
I suspect this lad found it was easy to live in the shadow, work as a plasterer, collect a nice income under the table, and not be bothered by income taxes. For almost 20 years. And looks like he’s had a pretty girlfriend too, although I bet she’s wondering a little bit at the hurried marriage plans.
It takes almost 10 years to go from Green Card applicant to getting your citizenship, at least it did for my wife and child, and a fair amount of legal fees. It’s not hard, just tedious and moderately exacting.
What Progressives don’t seem to understand is the instantaneous devaluing of their cases when they fail the first round of scrutiny. We’re all supposed to be sympathetic bigots because he’s white, instead of shockingly consistent. Boot his Paddy *ss out.
In all fairness, if he really does get deported, the Ireland he is being sent back to no longer resembles the place he left 20 years ago. Just like England, it’s being overrun by Middle Easterners and “Asians.”
I went on the last of many pilgrimages to Ireland c. 26 years ago. First trip in 1980 and there were several in between. Each time I went I found it had changed substantially from the time before. However, even when I was last there in 2000 (or 2001), it was still the Ireland of old, more or less, especially in the countryside, especially in the west and north where I spent most of my time (Galway, Clare, Mayo, Donegal, and Derry). Yeats once said that Ireland was the last medieval country in Europe — i.e., the last country in Europe to leave the Middle Ages — and I can attest that in the regions I frequented that was still the case . . . more or less. But even the Dublin of 26 years ago was still very much an Irish city — people of color were almost nonexistent, and the rather dilapidated environs of O’Connell Street were still, late at night, swarming with little loud rambunctious pale-faced Irish street urchins, running around chaotically under the watchful eyes of their mothers standing in puffing on cigarettes. And there was still sectarian strife between the Taigs and the Prots, and it was prolific, severe and quite violent on the North’s side of the borderlands, and in Belfast and Derry. And if your were Prot you durst not, if you knew what was good for you, set foot anywhere in South Armagh.
I understand that’s all changed, and that Ireland and the Irish — particularly the elites — have become virulently antisemitic, anti-American, and Marxist in their political leanings. In my younger days and through the 2000s, when I was well into my 50s, good Chicago Irish-American lad that I was, I spent a lot of time in South Side Irish pubs and most of my friends were Irish, and what a grand time we did have. But that’s all changed too. Chicago has changed and the Irish neighborhoods are fading away. Bridgeport and Canaryville and Beverly are still redoubts of Irishness, as are the Irish neighborhoods on the northwest side (Edison Park especially) but it’s plain that the Irish in Chicago are, in terms of forming large and vibrant Celtic communities, an endangered species. Since I quit drinking, and consequently stopped hanging out in pubs, I’ve lost touch with most of my Irish pals from back when, a process accelerated by moving to northwest Indiana.
All my Irish friends who’ve lived in this country for a good long while, as naturalized American citizensd, say the same thing about going back to Ireland: they scarcely recognize Ireland anymore and they feel like the proverbial strangers in a strange land . . . a very strange land indeed.
Reminds me of the scene in The Quiet Man in which Squire Daneher and Sean Thornton take a break from fighting each other to have some refreshment. With their elbows on the bar, bowed heads, and a pint of black beer in their fists, they reminisce briefly about the rare olde times. Finally Danaher, overcome with melancholy, shakes his head and laments: “The olde days are gone forever, sure.” And says: “tsk tsk. Tsk tsk.”
Gone forever indeed. And not for the better. Tsk tsk.
There is some value to libertarians, if only to remind us, “hey maybe we don’t need all this government”. But mostly I agree with Steve.
Completely agree with neo! Don’t care where he is from. He may not have gotten “even a parking ticket,” but he committed a crime the minute he overstayed his provisional visa in 2009. Then, after receiving a deportation order from an immigration court (due process), he committed more crimes when he attempted to commit fraud by applying for a Green Card and marrying someone (was he with this person all the years he was illegally here?). I don’t really care. He ain’t here legally. He got his day in court. And he was ordered deported. ‘Bye ‘bye. He chooses not to take the flight home and remain in detention? No sympathy. I really don’t understand the far Left who believe in no borders, free everything for freeloaders… Is it just to be contrary or do they really believe everyone has a right to be here? Minneapolis has stunned me and the kind of protests and the size. How much was organized? How much was organic? What are the people thinking? The words out of the mouths of the Gov. and the Mayor surely are some indication. But as one ICE member famously said on camera when asking one protester if they really wanted to protect dangerous criminals so they could stay in their city, he concluded “It’s insane!” I agree. (I also can’t imagine doing that job and being fought, treated like dirt, be assaulted, be doxxed,… It’s all insane) And they may be trying to get criminals first, then those with deportation orders, then I think it should be everyone who came illegally because most will never appear in court because they have no legit. case for asylum. And if they manage to hide long enough, years from now it will be “but they made lives here, had children, raised families – and always. they pay taxes! Did they? Reward them for their fraud. Perhaps if we had some system that in exchange for issuing green cards, they’d be required to repay money US govt. gave them if they work, in addition to social security and unemployment like we (are supposed to ) require repayment of school loans? Oh wait. That would be disincentive to work.
In 2002, I met a Czech chemical engineer here on a H1B visa working for a local company, trying to get a green card since his term had expired. He and his wife both came to the US and had a child while here.
They had hired a lawyer to help them stay. I don’t know if it was ever successful, but immigration authorities had told him since his child was a US citizen, when he turned 18 he could come back and sponsor them to emigrate.
He was legal and couldn’t stay. Not sure why someone illegally in the country qualifies for a green card, unless there’s some new squatters rights thing.
For some time (and again more recently) Newt Gingrich has been suggesting those illegal residents who have been here a long time, had a job, paid taxes, no criminal record, had children or even grandchildren, etc., should be given some form of forgiveness and amnesty, as they are really now “essential truly Americans”. He does provide a pretty sympathetic picture, for those “good” and “special case” people.
Of course Newt is a really smart guy. But the question he has not answered is at what period of overstay are they to be forgiven?
One year? Two, 5, 10, 25?? How do we decide and who decides?
As a minimum, I would favor removing anyone who came illegally during the Biden/Mayorkas/Garland criminal conspiracy to boost Dem party demographics. We just cannot reward that level of political lawfare, etc.
Otherwise, I can see “send them all back” as illegality should not be endorsed; and I can see myself being pulled by emotional strings of one sort or another in selected cases (especially involving children and/or medical treatment situations – where a period to complete medical treatment might still be granted by a judge.
IrishOtter49:
That was a lovely bit of writing, sir!
My one trip to Ireland was in 1998. The family I stayed with noted how many Poles had come to Dublin via the EU rules. They allowed that the Poles were good workers, but it was a change.
I was surprised I could find Louisiana food in the Temple Bar neighborhood. Tante Zoe’s — sadly closed in 2013:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/tante-zoes-dublin-2
My Swedish sister-in-law, married with US citizen child came in through the front door so no sympathy from me.
If we had a sane immigration system, anyone reasonably suspected of being an illegal alien would be arrested on the spot and transported to a specialty jail. If it later turned out the arresting officer was mistaken, they could be indemnified per a standard rate. The rate would be a function of nominal personal income per capita in the country so adjusted each year. Other than space shortages, which we have had decades to correct, there is no proper reason to allow illegal aliens to remain at large in the country. Once their illegal status is demonstrated and barring pending criminal charges, they are properly deported and debarred from re-entry for any reason for a term of years. This bum should have been sent home twenty years ago.
I don’t remember where I heard this, but I did hear it somewhere :
“You’ve heard of the Irish boomerang ? It never comes back, it just sings sad songs about how much it wants to.”
A wee bit of Diversity and a pot of scold at the end of the Rainbow… uh, rainbow.
@Brian E:In 2002, I met a Czech chemical engineer here on a H1B visa working for a local company, trying to get a green card since his term had expired.
H1B is technically a non-immigrant visa, and none of them should ever have been in line for green cards, but the laws were set up to be circumvented and here we are. Hope the American not hired in his place did all right. I’m sure the Czech engineer was a great guy, but the not-hired American you never got to know might have been as well.
The Czech Republic has pretty strict rules about who can take jobs there, like pretty much every other country.
Niketas C., I don’t have any idea if he was successful. From what he said, it wasn’t looking promising.
I think he was trying to use the hook that his son was a US citizen.
How did he end up in the US under the H1B program? I do know it’s hard to get professionals to move to rural areas.
The last company I worked for employed mostly ME’s with a few EE’s. While they hired some from UW to work in the Redmond facility, they were less likely to get them to locate to E. Washington. Montana State had a good engineering program, so a lot of new hires came from there.
We also have trouble hiring doctor’s in this area. That might also be from a shortage of GP’s nationwide.
@Brian E: I do know it’s hard to get professionals to move to rural areas…. We also have trouble hiring doctor’s in this area. That might also be from a shortage of GP’s nationwide….
And you’ve put your finger on it. H1Bs are used to suppress salaries. “Shortage” means “employers don’t want to pay the higher salaries needed to attract talent when demand is high”. A true shortage could not possibly involve Americans being laid off and H1Bs hired in their place, which has happened so many times.
In a free market, when supply is low and demand is high, prices rise, and new suppliers eventually come in. The H1B program has been misused to avoid part of that increase in salaries by allowing employers to tap foreign labor.
It was only intended for specialities absolutely unavailable or for rare talents.
Niketas C., the money may get them here, but it won’t keep them here. The amenities of a rural community is a disincentive.
In the case of my last employer, we were heavily export driven. Forty percent of our production went to Europe. We were very cost conscious. The company didn’t use H1B for a variety of reasons, so in this case our requirements were met by relying on good engineering programs at smaller universities.
I will say the company was dedicated to maintaining production in the US. We had a manufacturing plant in China and the company committed to not bringing those products into the US, but expand the Asian market. The majority of our exports were to Europe, which was about 40% of production. We had two manufacturing plants in Europe, but the flagship products remained here.
Even the medical community is constrained by what Medicare pays, which in turn constrains wages, given that other costs are higher in rural communities because of under utilization of very expensive equipment.
In the case of our medical community, many PCP’s come here to pay off debt and then are gone because there wives couldn’t adapt to the limited offerings of a rural community.
I don’t think H1B visas are much of an issue here, but H2A visa are. Given the regulatory labor requirements in terms of housing, transportation, etc. this is not cheap labor, but vital to the agricultural community. If you come over here you’ll see orchards where the fruit wasn’t picked this year (it was also an issue last year). Foreign (often subsidized) prices constrain the farmers.
It costs from $25 to $28/hour to utilize H2A visa holders when all the costs are calculated.
In the case of our medical community, many PCP’s come here to pay off debt and then are gone because there wives couldn’t adapt to the limited offerings of a rural community.
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Even the medical community is constrained by what Medicare pays, which in turn constrains wages, given that other costs are higher in rural communities because of under utilization of very expensive equipment.
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People commute and city practices develop satellite offices. Worked in my little town.
Art Deco, the closest town with more medical facilities is more than an hour and a half away.
That’s fine for specialists but for PCP’s do you want to drive an hour and a half to see your PCP?
That aside, the issue is whether you’re getting the best medical practitioners in the rural clinics. The good ones leave as soon as their loans are repaid per my previous comment that it’s often the spouses, not the pay that’s the driving force.
Recruit replacement spouses? :0
To the above: ” You can’t go home”.
That aside, the issue is whether you’re getting the best medical practitioners in the rural clinics. The good ones leave as soon as their loans are repaid per my previous comment that it’s often the spouses, not the pay that’s the driving force.
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You’re not going to get ‘the best’ practitioners anywhere except by accident. You’ll get industry-standard practitioners.
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You keep telling me stories based on your impressions. La di da. My primary care physician was located about 40 miles from my home. Worked for me.
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The states with the most decentralized populations are West Virginia, Maine, Mississippi, Vermont, and Montana in about that order. The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that West Virginia, Maine, and Vermont have a per capita population of physicians which exceed (to varying degrees) the national mean. Mississippi and Montana appear to have populations about 1/2 the national mean, but there are data fields which the BLS reports for other states they do not for these states, so the count may be incomplete.
My PCP is 6 minutes away and in the same building as the post office which is near the landing pad for Life Flight.