Irish-born husband of U.S. citizen, based in Wakefield, Mass., in ICE detention for 5 months

[Anonymous]

So basically eff straight off to the people defending this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did he follow the proper procedures? I see he’s married to a US citizen and is trying to get a green card, but I also read he overstayed a 90 day tourist visa. So wouldn’t he need to go back to Ireland and wait there for some type of visa to come back or issuance of his green card?

It’s a sad situation, but he’s in ICE detention because he refuses to leave voluntarily and follow some sort of process?

These are paperwork violations, not crimes. Why are these people being subjected to imprisonment and torture?

Seriously. Even if this is true (and I've heard the opposite), what kind of demented person would think it's appropriate to lock someone up for months in inhumane conditions of a paperwork issue?

Visa overstays are just as unlawful as someone illegally crossing the southern border on foot.

This guy feels entitled to stay illegally because he is white.

I’m glad that immigration enforcement is not only targeting POC.

None of these people should be treated like criminals unless and until they commit an actual crime. Being in the country illegally is a civil violation. An issue of paperwork, not a crime. ICE shouldn't even be armed. It'd be like arming postal workers. They deal with PAPERWORK ISSUES. If someone they are investigating poses such a threat that they feel the need to be armed, they should involve local police or the FBI. But ICE are not police officers. They do not need to be armed to sort out paperwork issues.

This is not about “paperwork issues” - this guy was unlawfully present for years and years. That is not a “paperwork issue” and if you think it is, it belies your assumption that this guy was entitled to be here and if it wasn’t for this little “paperwork issue” it would all be fine. White people need to go through the same processes and vetting as anyone else.

Then, send him to Ireland- it is too costly to keep him here.

He declined to sign the paper that would have immediately sent him to Ireland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Visa overstays should be deported, but the punishment doesn't fit the "crime". It's a misdemeanor to overstay your visa. It's like saying if you get a speeding ticket you deserve to be locked up in a cage and brutalized for six months.

How many MAGA have speeding tickets? FFS, several MAGA terrorized US congress people and destroyed the Capitol, yet our illustrious (/s) POTUS gave them pardons.

Deportation is a reasonable consequence for a long term willful civil violation. Long detentions in horrible circumstances are not. That is the part of this process that needs to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Visa overstays should be deported, but the punishment doesn't fit the "crime". It's a misdemeanor to overstay your visa. It's like saying if you get a speeding ticket you deserve to be locked up in a cage and brutalized for six months.

How many MAGA have speeding tickets? FFS, several MAGA terrorized US congress people and destroyed the Capitol, yet our illustrious (/s) POTUS gave them pardons.

Deportation is a reasonable consequence for a long term willful civil violation. Long detentions in horrible circumstances are not. That is the part of this process that needs to change.

But I thought he was staying in detention in order to fight deportation? Others are in detention to avoid flight risk and to facilitate immigration hearings with the subjects actually showing up for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of Irish in the Tristate area who similarly violated tourist visas and then married Americans. I'm talking about tens of thousands of cases from Ireland alone.

Lots of people, including Europeans like the Irish, have overstayed their visas in the past. I bet some MAGA "real Americans" have relatives who have stayed in the US illegally, and then had US born kids.

Get them out of here then. What’s your point? AI is coming and everyone is going to be unemployed. We don’t have unlimited funds for UBI.

He's self-employed as a plasterer (tradesman, as are many). How's AI going to do that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Visa overstays should be deported, but the punishment doesn't fit the "crime". It's a misdemeanor to overstay your visa. It's like saying if you get a speeding ticket you deserve to be locked up in a cage and brutalized for six months.

How many MAGA have speeding tickets? FFS, several MAGA terrorized US congress people and destroyed the Capitol, yet our illustrious (/s) POTUS gave them pardons.

Deportation is a reasonable consequence for a long term willful civil violation. Long detentions in horrible circumstances are not. That is the part of this process that needs to change.

But I thought he was staying in detention in order to fight deportation? Others are in detention to avoid flight risk and to facilitate immigration hearings with the subjects actually showing up for them.

In theory, yes. In practice, the immigration courts are backed up and/or other factors leading to very long detentions. And there is perhaps a perverse incentive to keeping people in detention for a long time because these prisons are for profit. So I don’t think ICE should be detaining people until they know there is a low wait time for court.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole overstaying the visa argument is flawed. Yes he did, but that was in the last. It's like prosecuting someone for speeding 15 years ago.

His current situation:
Culleton entered the US in 2009 on a visa waiver programme and overstayed the 90-day limit but 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.

The detention prevented him from attending the final interview in October for his green card that would have confirmed his legal status, said Okoye. “It’s inexplicable that this man has been in detention.”

This assumes the green card interview would have confirmed his status. USCIS used to look the other way when there were overstays. No more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole overstaying the visa argument is flawed. Yes he did, but that was in the last. It's like prosecuting someone for speeding 15 years ago.

His current situation:
Culleton entered the US in 2009 on a visa waiver programme and overstayed the 90-day limit but 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.

The detention prevented him from attending the final interview in October for his green card that would have confirmed his legal status, said Okoye. “It’s inexplicable that this man has been in detention.”

That’s ridiculous. More like he was speeding 15 years ago, and KEPT ON SPEEDING even though he knew the rules. The thing that changes is that enforcement has been increased.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole overstaying the visa argument is flawed. Yes he did, but that was in the last. It's like prosecuting someone for speeding 15 years ago.

His current situation:
Culleton entered the US in 2009 on a visa waiver programme and overstayed the 90-day limit but 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.

The detention prevented him from attending the final interview in October for his green card that would have confirmed his legal status, said Okoye. “It’s inexplicable that this man has been in detention.”

That’s ridiculous. More like he was speeding 15 years ago, and KEPT ON SPEEDING even though he knew the rules. The thing that changes is that enforcement has been increased.

So the fact that he applied for a permit to rectify his visa issue and is married to a citizen should mean nothing just because he had previously overstayed?

The crime of not getting it right initially, but trying to fix it, means instant deportation or imprisonment? GTFO.

He was in the process of trying to get his green card

The court could decide if he was eligible or not. Not some goon doing arbitrary sweeps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did he follow the proper procedures? I see he’s married to a US citizen and is trying to get a green card, but I also read he overstayed a 90 day tourist visa. So wouldn’t he need to go back to Ireland and wait there for some type of visa to come back or issuance of his green card?

It’s a sad situation, but he’s in ICE detention because he refuses to leave voluntarily and follow some sort of process?

These are paperwork violations, not crimes. Why are these people being subjected to imprisonment and torture?

Because ICE has targets to meet and they're not that good at their job. So they're "catching" those who are openly living in USA who may have some minor visa or green card irregularities, not the violent criminals Trump said he would deport.

+100

[Anonymous]

They could have sent him back to Ireland 5 months ago but instead are essentially keeping him in a concentration camp instead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People aren't actually that outraged in Ireland because most people there realize he overstayed his tourist visa by 20 years.

Ireland is not particularly kind to migrants who overstay their visas or who do not have legal status. Instead of marching FOR immigrants the past year there have been thousands marching AGAINST immigrants in Ireland:

They are passing new laws to curtain immigration and have random stops to verify immigrations status. New laws include:

Family reunification applicants who wish to bring relatives from outside the European Economic Area must demonstrate they earn at least the median national wage, currently more than 44,000 euros ($50,997), and have appropriate housing.

Long-term recipients of certain social welfare benefits will be ineligible for citizenship

Says who? You?! It is all over the press in the UK and Ireland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They could have sent him back to Ireland 5 months ago but instead are essentially keeping him in a concentration camp instead?

No, he has chosen to stay in detention. He will be released if he agrees to deportation. He will not be released back into the US absent legal status that allows him to stay. That status could be conferred by a judge pending his green card issuance, or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole overstaying the visa argument is flawed. Yes he did, but that was in the last. It's like prosecuting someone for speeding 15 years ago.

His current situation:
Culleton entered the US in 2009 on a visa waiver programme and overstayed the 90-day limit but 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.

The detention prevented him from attending the final interview in October for his green card that would have confirmed his legal status, said Okoye. “It’s inexplicable that this man has been in detention.”

Almost like the system is complex and convoluted, and treating people trying to navigate it like criminals isn't right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole overstaying the visa argument is flawed. Yes he did, but that was in the last. It's like prosecuting someone for speeding 15 years ago.

His current situation:
Culleton entered the US in 2009 on a visa waiver programme and overstayed the 90-day limit but 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.

The detention prevented him from attending the final interview in October for his green card that would have confirmed his legal status, said Okoye. “It’s inexplicable that this man has been in detention.”

That’s ridiculous. More like he was speeding 15 years ago, and KEPT ON SPEEDING even though he knew the rules. The thing that changes is that enforcement has been increased.

It's not the same. We're talking about people's lives, not speeding.

All this bureaucracy creates crimes. If someone has no criminal history and can get a job with enough income to support themselves, they should be allowed to come and stay so long as they continue to meet that bar. What right do any of us have to tell anyone else that they can't move freely around this planet that belongs to us all? That people suffering violence poverty and corruption must stay and endure that because of where they happened to be born and who their parents were. It's stupid. All of this is stupid. Let people live.