Irishman held by ICE was issued warrant over 2009 drug offense in Ireland

An Irish court apparently issued a warrant for the arrest of the Irish man currently embroiled in controversy with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has been ramping up detentions and activity around the United States since last year.Seamus Culleton has spent five months in US custody and faces deportation despite having a valid work permit in a case that has attracted widespread publicity. His lawyer called him a “model immigrant” with no criminal record.On Thursday, it emerged that in April 2009 – a month after Culleton entered the US on a tourist visa – a district court in New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland, issued a warrant over the alleged possession of drugs for sale or supply the previous year. Culleton also faced charges of allegedly obstructing a garda – a police officer – during a search by throwing 25 ecstasy tablets on the ground, the Irish Times reported.These disclosures have added a new dimension to a case that has become a lightning rod for concern about ongoing ICE immigration sweeps and detentions around the US.In an RTE radio interview earlier this week from a detention centre in El Paso, Texas, Culleton compared conditions there to a concentration camp and said he feared for his safety. He appealed to the Irish government to raise his case with Donald Trump so that he could return to his wife, a US citizen, and his plastering company in the Boston, Massachusetts, area.Politicians and commentators in Ireland denounced his detention and accused the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, of not doing enough.Culleton, originally from County Kilkenny, entered the US in March 2009 on a visa waiver programme and overstayed the 90-day limit. After marrying a US citizen, Tiffany Smyth, and applying for lawful permanent residence, he obtained a statutory exemption that allowed him to work, according to his lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye.Okoye said her client was “the perfect candidate” to have the government exercise favourable discretion on his behalf because he was not a flight risk nor “a criminal of any sort”. She initially gave his age as 42 and on Wednesday corrected that to 38, which matched the date of birth on Irish court records relating to Culleton’s drug case.In a press conference, Okoye said she learned of the case through the media: “This is the first time that we are hearing about that,” she said. She also said her client would not be aware of any warrant that happened after he came to the US.“A warrant is not a conviction, a warrant is not a criminal entry, so I will leave it at that until I understand the specific facts of the case,” she said.Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, said in a social media post that Culleton had overstayed his visa and failed to depart the US. “He received full due process and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on September 10th 2025.” He was offered the choice to be instantly deported to Ireland but instead “chose to stay in ICE custody”, she said, referencing his decision to contest his deportation.Culleton has said his whole life is in the US and disputes a claim by ICE agents that he signed a form consenting to deportation.