Culleton said he was carrying a Massachusetts driving licence and a valid work permit issued by the US government when he was pulled over by Ice on the way home from work in September. His work permit was issued as part of an application for a green card which he initiated in April 2025. For five days, Culleton was held in a small cell overflowing with other detainees, then flown to a Buffalo, New York, Ice facility. He wrote down that his grounds for contesting were that he was married to a US citizen and had a valid work permit. He was then flown to the Ice facility in El Paso, Texas.

Source: The Irish Times February 09, 2026 10:30 UTC