The Government cannot make any promises to the Irish man who has been held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since September, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said, telling the Dáil this afternoon that “all countries, bar none, have immigration laws.”
Mr Martin was speaking during leaders’ questions, after Labour’s Deputy Ivana Bacik raised the case of Seamus Culleton. Mr Culleton, originally from Glenmore, Co Kilkenny, called RTE’s LiveLine on Monday from a dentition centre in El Paso in Texas.
He told the programme that he had been arrested on September 9th 2025, and has been in the facility for nearly five months despite the fact he has no criminal record and that he has lived in the US for almost 20 years. Mr Culleton married his wife Tiffany last April, who is a US citizen.
He claimed on the programme that the conditions in the facility are “absolute hell” and “like a concentration camp.”
Addressing his case, Mr Martin said he had only heard of it yesterday through the media.
Deputy Bacik had asked the Taoiseach to help secure the Irish man’s release, asking: “What will he do today to ensure the release of Seamus Culleton and to ensure the safety of other Irish citizens being detained by ICE or in fear of being detained by it?”
“I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I first became aware it yesterday via the media. That is fine,” said Mr Martin. He said that the Department of foreign affairs became aware of the case in October and had been providing consular assistance to Seamus Culleton and his family via the teams at the consulate general in Austin, the embassy in Washington DC and our consular unit in Dublin.
“We have migration law in this country,” added Mr Martin. “We have laws. There is legal status in Ireland and there is undocumented status in Ireland. All countries, bar none, have migration laws.”
He said that Ireland has sought, over the years, to try and regularise the undocumented in America via legislation in Congress on the Hill.
“Long before President Trump entered the White House, this has been a challenge. Deputy Bacik and everybody else in the House knows that. We came very close a number of years ago with the E-3 visa. At that time, we lost out by one vote on having a number of thousand visas from the Australian visa allocation allocated to Ireland. One vote stymied what would have been a significant breakthrough on that occasion,” said the Taoiseach.
He said it had been “extraordinarily difficult” to get a consensus on Capitol Hill in respect of migration for any one specific country, “because Hispanics and Latinos will all want similar deals.”
“It is either a deal for all or none, and that has been the consistent position in the US for the past decade or so. That makes it particularly difficult in terms of endeavouring to the get the Irish who are undocumented in the United States regularised. It is a very traumatic and difficult position for people to be in when it comes to their families and the many who have established homes there and so on. Families in the US are always watching over their shoulders and worried about a knock on the door or their being in a position where they would be deported.”
“Deportations have been going on for quite a number of years. There is a particularly intensity in the current ICE campaign,” added the Fianna Fail leader.
“Of that, there is no doubt. The Government’s position is that we will do everything we can to help Seamus Culleton, but we have to do it in a way that can really help and be effective for him. We cannot promise anything, because we do not control American migration law or practice. However, we can engage. We have engaged and we will continue to engage. We are concerned about the conditions that exist in the place where Seamus Culleton is being held, but we are also anxious for the matter to be resolved in the context of the status issue.”
‘OBJECTIVE IS TO SECURE STATUS’
Ms Bacik said it was a “most unsatisfactory” response.
“The Taoiseach has conflated, wrongly in my view, quite a number of issues. Of course countries have migration laws. Of course, the successive Irish Governments have for many years been trying to regularise undocumented Irish citizens in the US,” claimed the Labour TD.
“However, we are talking about an Irish citizen who has been detained in inhumane conditions for five months in the US in breach of international law. That is the issue here. What I have not heard from the Taoiseach is any sense of urgency about securing his release or ensuring that no other Irish citizens are being held in the same conditions. Some may be, but we do not know. There could be as many as 12 apparently.”
“What I have not heard from the Taoiseach are any words that will offer comfort to families here of Irish citizens in the US, to Seamus’s family or, indeed, to others. The Taoiseach is saying that the Government is going to continue using fairly limited diplomatic levers. He is still going to go to the US. Would it not be more appropriate to go to the US on St. Patrick’s Day to offer condolences to the mayor of Minneapolis? Because we are seeing ICE killing US citizens on the streets and detaining Irish citizens in breach of due process and in inhumane conditions,” added Bacik.
Mr Martin told the House: “There are a number of cases. It could be five to six cases, but they vary in status. The Deputy is implying, wrongly, my approach to this. I would have thought that the prime objective is to secure status. People want to get out of the detention facility. The Deputy knows best.”