Government must act now to free Irish citizen held in US detention – Bacik

Labour Leader Ivana Bacik TD has today called for immediate and decisive Government action to secure the release of Irish citizen Seamus Culleton, who has been detained for five months in an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas. Speaking in the Dáil earlier today, Deputy Bacik pressed the Taoiseach to use every available diplomatic channel to intervene, following harrowing testimony from Mr Culleton and growing concern about the treatment of Irish citizens in US immigration detention. 

Deputy Bacik said:

“Families across Ireland were deeply shaken listening in to Liveline yesterday to Seamus Culleton describe the conditions he is being held in. This is an Irish citizen who has spent five months detained in a facility where dozens of men are crammed into a single tent, where sanitation is appalling, and where there are credible reports of violence, intimidation and deaths. No family should have to hear that their loved one fears for his life while the Irish Government responds without urgency.

“This Government is failing to act with the seriousness this case demands. Seamus has lived in the United States for seventeen years, runs a business in Boston, and is married to an American citizen. He was detained while awaiting the processing of his residency application, a delay entirely outside his control. One arm of the US system was processing his status, while another locked him in detention. That contradiction does not justify months of imprisonment in conditions that appear to breach international law.

“The Taoiseach’s response in the Dáil today was deeply disappointing. He conflated immigration enforcement with the fundamental issue of prolonged detention and sidestepped the urgency of what is happening to an Irish citizen right now. What is deeply troubling, despite widespread media coverage and clear distress, Government has still not made direct contact with Seamus’s family. That is unacceptable.

“The treatment described by Seamus raises serious concerns under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which the United States is a party. Ireland has both a moral responsibility and a diplomatic obligation to act when one of our citizens is facing conditions that may amount to a breach of international human rights standards.

“This is not an isolated case. Parliamentary Questions tabled by my colleague Duncan Smith have confirmed that deportations of Irish citizens from the US have quadrupled in the past year. Immigration lawyers in the US are warning that Irish people are living in fear, unsure whether others may also be detained without adequate consular protection. Yet this Government cannot say how many Irish citizens may currently be held in similar circumstances.

“Labour is calling for immediate, high-level diplomatic intervention to secure the release of Seamus Culleton and to establish whether other Irish citizens are being detained by ICE. That means direct engagement with US authorities, urgent consular action, and clear accountability to Seamus’s family. Irish citizens deserve the full protection of their Government when their rights are at risk. The Government must act now.”