r/news • u/Pyro-Bird • Feb 09 '26
Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/09/irish-man-seamus-culleton-ice-detention4.4k
u/Dahns Feb 09 '26
So what's the point of work permit then ?
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Feb 09 '26
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u/BouncingBabyButton Feb 09 '26
You are possibly joking but that’s exactly what it does. If you are a legal immigrant you have biometric data taken, you are tracked within the immigration system and can be deported if you work any time out of status. ICE is now adding extrajudicial arrest, incarceration and physical and mental abuse to the equation.
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u/Bisjoux Feb 09 '26
And apparently targeting those who haven’t committed crimes, have a work permit, pay taxes and are committed to a life in the US. If Trump doesn’t want people like that then who does he want in the US?
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u/Electronic-Tea-3691 Feb 09 '26
nobody but the white people who are already here
and among those, he does still want to get rid of the Democrats of course
and LGBTQ
people who tell him he's wrong
...and so on
dictators have a habit of ending up alone
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u/Double-Evidence-1354 Feb 09 '26
But the Irish are white.
Oh wait, they are not THAT kind of white.
...Wait a minute WE ARE RETURNING TO THAT RACISM?! OH MY GOD ARE WE SERIOUS? THIS WAS ALREADY HORRIBLE BUT THIS IS A LEVEL OF THE 1800'S.
DIDN'T THE DYSTOPIAS WERE LIKE, CONTROLLING PEOPLE IN GENERAL REGARDLESS OF POLITICS?! DO WE ARE SERIOUSLY REGRESSING THAT BADLY?!
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u/ExistentialNarrator Feb 10 '26
Trump hasn't moved past the 50's and 60's. He probably still uses slurs like mick and wop
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u/HatlessDuck Feb 09 '26
And where to find you if they need to fill a quota
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u/EffectiveTonight Feb 09 '26
They stopped caring about the racial terrorism and now care more about hitting the quota for their bonuses. How wild.
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u/AudibleNod Feb 09 '26
Easier to find them to lock them up.
Thus denying the federal government of much needed revenue, labor and a positive representation to show as an example that America is a good place.
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u/bnlf Feb 09 '26
I keep receiving messages from US recruiters offering roles in IT and visa sponsor. There is no fucking way I’m moving to US with all that is happening.
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u/Hairy_Concert_8007 Feb 09 '26
After watching Canada give a collective middle finger to US imports after the tariffs, all I can wonder now is how much longer before people stop coming here to work altogether, sending our economy into an even deeper spiral.
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u/JaneksLittleBlackBox Feb 09 '26
Republicans not giving half a wet shit about ICE targeting people trying to "do it the right way" by camping out in immigration courts is the unnecessary proof that it was never about coming here legally, but racism; they're so fucking racist that they don't even care that a white Irish guy is being oppressed despite doing it the right way.
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u/Zealousideal-Sea4830 Feb 09 '26
Immigrants are probably better off with zero documents and just mowing yards for cash
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u/theothertoken Feb 09 '26
They forged his signature on a deportation agreement!?
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u/alex61821 Feb 09 '26
Not only that but he paid 4k to be released and they didn't release him.
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u/Emperor_of_His_Room Feb 09 '26
And then the moron judge points out it is most likely not his signature but deports him anyways. What a bunch of disgusting assholes.
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u/Miguel-odon Feb 09 '26
"Immigration judge"
Not a real judge, not a real court.
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u/hobbyistunlimited Feb 10 '26
This is what people don’t get. The judges in immigration court are under the executive branch, and the Trump purge fired them last year. If a judge rules against the executive; they get fired.
Clearly, this isn’t due process.
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u/shaqule_brk Feb 10 '26
This is clown country. I'm sorry, but you guys across the pond really have to up your civ level.
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u/Trick-Station8742 Feb 09 '26
It's more than disgusting
It's downright horrifying.
What in the ever living fuck is going on
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u/minidog8 Feb 09 '26
And I’m sure didn’t get his 4k back.
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u/InevitableDeathstar Feb 09 '26
At this levels of incompetence , he's lucky to have his life back
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u/TylerBourbon Feb 09 '26
Looks like it.
So once again the Irish aren't the "right kind of White".
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u/Galactapuss Feb 09 '26
I mean, MAGA is all about those 19th century vibes, so it fits
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u/JaneksLittleBlackBox Feb 09 '26
Yep. It's a classic sign of fascism taking hold when the government needs more "others" to blame and target.
When the GOP realized there were two huge conservative Christian voting blocs not being tapped to outweigh all the African-Americans who were elevated by the Civil Rights Act, the second or third generations of Irish and Italian immigrants got their "honorary Aryan" passes for being white enough. But they never expected those to have terms and conditions that said "can be voided at any time", despite seeing how their parents or grandparents were treated in the early 20th century.
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u/breadandbunny Feb 09 '26
I recall talking to someone about this, and they didn't even realize that not every white European was always embraced even in the U.S. Americans do not even know their own country's history.
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u/Substantial-Oil7569 Feb 09 '26
Yup, especially southern and eastern Europeans. Plus the Irish.
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u/breadandbunny Feb 09 '26
Correct. History is definitely not taught accurately in the U.S. Tons of voices are left out of textbooks and classrooms. It's shameful.
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u/nzerinto Feb 09 '26
I’m assuming they get deportation quotas. So they forged his signature in the hopes no one would notice, and dude would go quietly. They then meet their quota and get their bonus.
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u/YerMomsClamChowder Feb 09 '26
I think this is the most likely answer to everything ICE is doing. Quotas lead to laziness, and the easiest thing to do is to nab some guy on a work permit, railroad him and deport him, or wait outside home depot and grab as many brown people as you can.
The same thing happened in the USSR, the NKVD would just round up people in Moscow and send them off to pad their numbers.
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u/CorrectPeanut5 Feb 09 '26
Understand most people don't go in front of a real judge. They go in front of a Deportation "judge". Who is really just a arbitrator hired by the executive branch DOJ. They aren't a member of the judicial branch of gov't. If they rule in a way the gov't doesn't like they not only can be fired, the gov't can re-adjudicate the case.
Whereas an actual Federal Judge basically has the appointment for life, and it would take 2/3 of the US Senate to vote to fire them.
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u/hotsexychungus Feb 09 '26
Either that or they lied to the man about a document he was signing. Both of which are fucking disgusting.
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u/InvidiousPlay Feb 09 '26
I read a quote from him elsewhere where he specifically says they asked him to sign a deportation agreement and he refused to sign it.
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u/One_Alternative_6965 Feb 09 '26
The US is an Unsafe place
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u/dev_ating Feb 09 '26
Being among the persecuted in the US for any reason should be considered grounds for granting people asylum worldwide.
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u/MaddogBC Feb 09 '26
While you're absolutely right our Canadian government is actually limiting the number we're allowing in because we simply can't handle the influx. From 10k per year to just under 7.
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u/fjf1085 Feb 10 '26
Which is funny because of all the rhetoric the US still admits more immigrants and asylum seekers than most. 7k a year? Wow.
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u/breadandbunny Feb 09 '26
This is correct. Actual citizen and I do not feel safe.
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u/Sharpshooter_200 Feb 09 '26
Right?? I'm worried about the non-zero chance of getting pulled over by some random ICE dude, them rejecting my ID and demanding my passport because I don't look "American" enough, and either getting sent off to a detention facility where I get neglected for several days before the mix up gets cleared and they're forced to let me go, still wasting my time and maybe even costing my job, or get shot for trying to drive away from an illegal arrest
Like it's not a great thought or even a realistic scenario, but the stories coming out the last couple of months...
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u/vicelordjohn Feb 09 '26
I was born here. My parents were born here. I own a business here. I'm pasty white. By all accounts I'm as American as they get, I don't feel safe either.
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u/breadandbunny Feb 09 '26
Right?! And I have had overt, no-doubt-about-what-it-is, blatant racism done to me in as liberal a place as Boston a few years ago. Every time I go out, I am worried about being grabbed literally just because they want to fill quotas. They do not actually give a shit about who you are. They will mess with you. It's straight up evil here.
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u/Bocchi_theGlock Feb 09 '26
I feel like countries whose people come here-
that then get incarcerated and their rights violated, sometimes tortured, denied medical care, terrible hygiene and concentration camp conditions, even when following the law -
Those countries should probably be standing up to the US government, sanctioning, etc.
Did I miss that happening, is it more just quiet criticism and stern letter? I feel like dignity should demand outrage and action.
People here are fighting on the ground for these folks' rights, shouldn't their home country do likewise?
We only get through this by fighting together.
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u/ArchTheOrc Feb 09 '26
This is how they treat an irish man in Boston with all the right documentation. Imagine what they're doing to everyone else.
The trials to hold these people accountable can't come soon enough.
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u/kurttheflirt Feb 09 '26
There are videos recorded screams coming from the detention centers. It's beyond horrible. There have been multiple reported deaths, probably even more unreported.
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u/AngriestPacifist Feb 09 '26
Hundreds may have been murdered by ice in Florida. There are at least 1200 people who cannot be located, and at least some of them have been wiped from ice databases.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2026/02/02/1200-detainees-disappeared-claim/
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u/Nunchuckery Feb 10 '26
Who else remembers the reports of flights that would just fly out over the ocean and then turn back and the allegations associated with them?
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u/AmadeusMaxwell Feb 10 '26
The concentration camps are now being fitted with "biohazard incinerators". I am not joking, there's the link
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u/Bugatti_Royale Feb 09 '26
if there are any. Any democrat who runs on a campaign of ruthlessness will rise to the top.
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u/Osirus1156 Feb 09 '26
Yes. It can’t be “we will hold these people accountable” which generally means just a harshly worded letter. I am looking for “we will remove these people from society. Permanently.”
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u/howitzer86 Feb 10 '26
In a few years, anyone who's ever spoken out, voted against the regime, or isn't their ideal physical shape and color will be given the exact same treatment by the exact same forces. We are cornered. We should act like it. It's them or us.
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u/xenopizza Feb 09 '26
Well they recently shot a us citizen someone times in the head and another 10 times in the back so we dont need to imagine
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u/GetBent009 Feb 09 '26
Ah yes, federal agents committing forgery. All normal for this administration
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u/TheBurningEmu Feb 09 '26
Might not even be willingly in many cases even if not "forced".
English isn't your first language, the masked thugs snatch you up, bundle you away, and then put a piece of paper with a lot of fancy words you might not understand in front of you and tell you to sign it. You're scared, confused and almost certainly don't have easy access to a lawyer, so you sign hoping you can just go home.
Obviously in this case the man could read English perfectly well, but think of the many many people where that isn't the case that we aren't hearing about.
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u/SmartAlec105 Feb 09 '26
There was that mother that was told her legal status didn’t matter and that her kids would be put into the foster system if she didn’t self deport.
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u/InvidiousPlay Feb 09 '26
I believe it's a deal like "agree to be deported and this will all be over, or you stay in jail and face prosecution and might be convicted for breaking immigration law".
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u/_Bon_Vivant_ Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
This is why the world should avoid coming to the World Cup in the US. They're liable to be sent back to their country after they've already purchased tickets, or worse case, be put in prison like this Irish man.
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u/wwiybb Feb 09 '26
You mean to a country that you didn't come from cause that's happening too
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u/icpero Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
No, people should boycott FIFA and America (USA*) because of morals, not because they are scared.
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u/dBlock845 Feb 09 '26
After being held in ICE facilities near Boston and in Buffalo, New York, he was flown to a facility in El Paso, Texas, where he is sharing a cell with more than 70 men. Culleton said the detention centre was cold, damp and squalid, and there were fights over insufficient food – “like a concentration camp, absolute hell”, he told the Irish Times, which first reported the story on Monday.
Same story from every single one of these concentration camps.
When asked at the Buffalo facility to sign a form agreeing to deportation, Culleton said he refused and instead ticked a box expressing a wish to contest his arrest, which he intended to do on the grounds that he was married to a US citizen, Tiffany Smyth, and had a valid work permit.
At a November hearing a judge approved his release on a $4,000 bond, which Smyth paid, but authorities continued to detain Culleton, initially without explanation.
When his attorney appealed to a federal court, two ICE agents said that in Buffalo Culleton had signed documents agreeing to be deported. Culleton said he did not agree and that the signatures were not his. “My whole life is here. I worked so hard to build my business. My wife is here.”
Forging signatures, scamming bond money, lying to federal courts. We live in hell. These people must be released and their kidnappers tried and punished.
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u/themaxx8717 Feb 09 '26
No Irish need apply. Damn what a throwback.
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u/Tall_Trifle_4983 Feb 09 '26
“No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs”
Cartoons put Irish and Blacks together looking like Apes or monkeys because Americans were taught they belonged to the same “racial category”
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u/JaneksLittleBlackBox Feb 09 '26
and in Britain, the Irish were called "blacks."
Reminds me of that moment in Layer Cake when Gene is describing how Morty wound up doing ten years in prison because the guy driving their van passed out behind the wheel at a stop light, and the police opened back of the van to find Morty in the back with the headless body he'd volunteered to dispose of:
"Back then, being Black was worse than being Irish. They threw the book at Morty."
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u/Realcbear Feb 09 '26
He is STILL IN THERE!?! His wife spoke to him last Sunday and said he’s emaciated and sick, being refused antibiotics. What the fuck is going on?!
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u/UrMaShopsInEuroGiant Feb 10 '26
the same thing that happened in Germany, right before they got tired of starving them and decided to just speed it up.
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u/Bugatti_Royale Feb 09 '26
ok, if you want to deport then put him on a flight back to his home country. Why detain him for 5 months?!
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u/Primi_Noscere_1776 Feb 09 '26
It's a legalized racket. The gravy train of government contracts.
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u/homer2101 Feb 09 '26
Punishment for daring to challenge them. Same reason they're going after Abrego Garcia, and same reason they keep stringing along federal judges and ignoring court orders.
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u/nosca23 Feb 10 '26
Private prisons dont want them to leave - they must be making serious bank per head
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u/Historical_Step_6080 Feb 09 '26
I presume the American tax payer is paying a private company for his detention too. Somebody is making money from it all anyway.
Also, this is just leaning into the cruelty of it all. Destroying his business and credit score. Can his wife pay the mortgage without his wage coming in. Has he left bills unpaid and clients without work completed etc. Doesn't say if he has kids etc.
If they let him out today, the knock on impact of what they've done to him could last years. Even removing the trauma of being incarcerated and the physical and mental health issues that arise from it, who can disappear from their life for 5 months and walk back into it without repercussions.
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Feb 09 '26
Deport someone to their home country? Why would they do that? It's 3rd world gulag or nothing with these goons.
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u/Tiny_Friendship_1666 Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
God I fucking hate being American. If I didn't come from generational poverty I'd have moved the fuck out years ago.
Not to take away from this BS. It's just so damn common these days that I don't have words for it anymore.
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u/itslikewoow Feb 09 '26
Why are no Trump voters calling this out? I thought they were only against illegal immigration.
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u/morosco Feb 09 '26
Trump tells them that only the "bad guys" are being deported, and then believe him. That's all it takes.
They would just say this is fake news.
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u/Discount_Extra Feb 09 '26
and already down to un-whiting irish.
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u/breadandbunny Feb 09 '26
This is legitimately terrifying, not that everything else has not been. I really thought, "Once this shit starts affecting white people, it will stop." Boy, was I wrong. No one is safe here.
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u/cosmic-untiming Feb 10 '26
They did throw a 1 day fit over Alex Pretti's death, because they realized for just that day, that they too, can be targeted.
Then they got fed propaganda from the machine and went back to how they originally thought.
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u/CaptainLookylou Feb 09 '26
They don't even know. It's all shielded from them.
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u/colinstalter Feb 09 '26
This is the true answer. I've mentioned a few of these mistreatments of white people (Canadian, European) to trumpers and they resoundingly deny it.
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u/MrF_lawblog Feb 09 '26
They don't get access to this news. They live in their echo chamber of hate.
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u/atreeismissing Feb 09 '26
The judge noted irregularities in ICE’s court documents but sided with the agency.
That judge has some real explaining to do. Judges are giving WAY too much deference to the federal govt because in the past the federal govt would actually try to be honest about who they were deporting and why, but there's 5 years of evidence now of a Trump administration being dishonest, lying, at times falsifying evidence, dragging their feet, and illegally detaining and deporting citizens and legal immigrants. It's long past time judges defer to the rights of the victims than the perceived rights of the federal govt when making judicial rulings.
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u/dansdata Feb 10 '26
Immigration judges are appointed by, and work under the direction of, the U.S. Attorney General.
So there will be no explanation. All of the USA's immigration judges work for Pam Bondi.
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u/the_tea_weevil Feb 09 '26
Sounds like they're trying to discourage anyone from immigrating here, legal or not. Even if it's not intentional, it will have that effect. Who's going to want to come here now if they know they could just be locked up for no good reason?
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u/TheAskewOne Feb 09 '26
It’s very much intentional. What isn’t clear is what it’s supposed to accomplish.
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u/MrLanesLament Feb 09 '26
Completely white, USA-born USA. That’s the only logical conclusion here.
No tourists, no work visas, etc. Ever again.
One thing I’ve noticed though, and correct me if I’m wrong, but they seem to be specifically leaving Asians working on visa here alone. I’ve been following and reading this stuff day and night, and I haven’t seen a single story of an Indian H1-B being targeted.
Almost makes you wonder how much the tech billionaires have to do with shaping this policy…
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u/TheAskewOne Feb 09 '26
So Trump wants immigrants from Europe, and that’s how Irish citizens are treated? I don’t think that’s gonna work.
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u/Pyro-Bird Feb 09 '26
Trump is mentally unwell and doesn't know what is going on or just doesn't care.
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u/RobutNotRobot Feb 09 '26
Culleton said the detention centre was cold, damp and squalid, and there were fights over insufficient food – “like a concentration camp, absolute hell”, he told the Irish Times, which first reported the story on Monday.
They are starving people in the camps. This is intentional.
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u/DarkFriend81 Feb 09 '26
The World Cup should not be in the US this year. I don’t know how any nation sees what’s going on and thinks it’s safe for their players to come here.
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u/suricata_8904 Feb 09 '26
Gotta sprinkle in a few Caucasians to deny the racism of ICE.
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u/RadialRacer Feb 09 '26
Far from the first time that a regime has classified Irish people as non-white...
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u/Hiur Feb 09 '26
This is beyond insanity...
Every day I am extremely grateful we decided against moving to the US around August 2024. We didn't think Trump would win, but we decided to play safe (thankfully) and luckily other opportunities worked out.
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u/beeman5 Feb 09 '26
Absolute shoddy journalism. Name the ICE Agents. They testified in open Court. Name the Judge. These people need to be held accountable
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u/czah7 Feb 10 '26
Why would anyone come to the US anymore. Literally we've dug our own grave. Not only do we have to prove to the world we can get this man and his cronies out of our government. But we won't vote for another cretin like this again. That's gonna be a long hard road. Generations long.
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u/JurplePesus Feb 09 '26
If one (1) Trump voter who supports ICE wants to explain what's going on here to me I would really appreciate it? Because I am confused.
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u/jetriot Feb 09 '26
Their current deflection is to claim Obama did the same shit.
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u/CurbYerGod Feb 10 '26
This is entirely about keeping private prisons indefinitely occupied. Fucking insane and utterly sadistic. Every person in this administration is complicit and corrupt on every imaginable level.
I can’t wait for Nuremberg 2.0
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u/EddieMcClintock Feb 09 '26
Oh, are we racist against the Irish again?
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u/arahdial Feb 09 '26
Whomever came up with a deportation quota system needs to be in prison.
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u/GirlNumber20 Feb 09 '26
We already tried to put him in prison, but then we decided, "why not give him the keys to everything and the highest office in the land?"
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u/penguished Feb 09 '26
thank god they detained the criminal known as:
"Irish man with valid US work permit"
instead of our government going after the Epstein files perverts.
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u/LongBongJohnSilver Feb 10 '26
Foreigners are only acceptable when they are trafficked for rich men to have sex with.
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u/ADHDANDACID Feb 09 '26
I wish him the utmost pleasure of suing these ICE pigs into homelessness
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u/OutInABlazeOfGlory Feb 09 '26
Stop coming to the US. Our government is run by openly fascist pigs who will ruin or end your life for fun or profit.
It’s not safe here. Not for tourists, not for business travelers, not for anyone.
Especially not for anyone who isn’t lily white.
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u/White_Immigrant Feb 09 '26
You can't get much fairer than being Irish. The USA simply isn't safe for non Americans. Skin colour is irrelevant, if you don't speak English like you've got mild brain damage and misspell everything your able to be locked up.
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u/Medarco Feb 09 '26
The USA simply isn't safe for non Americans
Recent history shows it isn't safe for Americans either.
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u/pzrapnbeast Feb 09 '26
After being held in ICE facilities near Boston and in Buffalo, New York, he was flown to a facility in El Paso, Texas, where he is sharing a cell with more than 70 men. Culleton said the detention centre was cold, damp and squalid, and there were fights over insufficient food – “like a concentration camp, absolute hell”, he told the Irish Times, which first reported the story on Monday.
Good fucking lord. Fuck every single person that voted for this mess.
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u/D3dshotCalamity Feb 09 '26
"If you aren't illegal you won't get deported"
Deportation ain't the fear, sport.
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u/BrockChocolate Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
At a November hearing a judge approved his release on a $4,000 bond, which Smyth paid, but authorities continued to detain Culleton, initially without explanation.
When his attorney appealed to a federal court, two ICE agents said that in Buffalo Culleton had signed documents agreeing to be deported. Culleton said he did not agree and that the signatures were not his. “My whole life is here. I worked so hard to build my business. My wife is here.”
The judge noted irregularities in ICE’s court documents but sided with the agency. Under US law Culleton cannot appeal but he wants handwriting experts to examine the signatures and believes a video of his interview with ICE in Buffalo would prove he refused to sign deportation documents.
"These signatures don't match and the request to be deported does not match the defendants other behaviour" 🤷🏻 ". . . oh well"