The case of Seamus Culleton – who was detained by US immigration agents in Boston in September 2025 – is proving a diplomatic headache for the Irish government ahead of a visit to the White House on St Patrick’s Day.
Culleton arrived in the US in 2009, overstaying his visa. He married a US citizen last year and obtained a valid work permit, and was in the process of applying for permanent residency when he was apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and detained. He has remained in detention in Texas since. A US court has now issued a temporary order staying his deportation.
Culleton’s case shines a rare light on the “undocumented” Irish in the US, a group that is rarely mentioned in US discussions around illegal immigration. The very idea of being undocumented in the US is associated with people from Mexico and Central and South America, not white people of European descent.
