Irishman Seamus Culleton has secured a further pause to his deportation from the United States but has been refused release from a detention facility in El Paso, Texas.
Culleton, who entered the US as a tourist in 2009, has been detained since being arrested near his home in Massachusetts by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers in September.
A court in Texas last January rejected the Co Kilkenny native’s challenge to his detention. It found that people who entered the US on visa-waiver programmes and overstayed their visit were not entitled to contest their deportation, other than if they had applied for asylum.
On Monday his Boston-based solicitors, BOS Legal, confirmed an appeals court granted a temporary pause to his deportation but refused his request to be released from the detention facility. The firm said the court also denied the US government’s request for a quick resolution of his case seeking a review of the order for his removal from the country.
READ MORE
Attorney Ogor Winne Okoye, for Culleton (38), said the court’s stay, granted on Sunday, “ensures that removal does not occur before serious statutory and constitutional questions are fully examined”.
“This case presents significant legal questions regarding compliance with governing immigration statutes and regulations, including procedural safeguards required before issuance of a removal order,” the firm added in its statement.
Culleton’s case came to widespread prominence early last month after he spoke to The Irish Times from the facility in Texas, where he had been held for about five months. He described conditions in the centre as “like a concentration camp, absolute hell”.
Having entered the US as a tourist under the visa waiver programme in March 2009, he remained there after the permitted 90 days. He married US citizen Tiffany Smith in April of last year and was in the process of applying for permanent residency, on the basis of the marriage, when he was picked up by Ice agents and moved to Texas.
It emerged that the District Court in New Ross, Co Wexford, issued a warrant in April 2009 in respect of Culleton, of Kilbridge, Glenmore, Co Killkenny, 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.
[ Is Seamus Culleton paying for Ireland’s ‘woke’ visa approach?Opens in new window ]
