Irishman who complained of 'torture' after being detained for five months by US ICE agents 'had overstayed 90-day visa issued in 2009'

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An Irishman who complained of 'torture' after being detained by US ICE agents had overstayed his 90-day visa that had been issued in 2009.

Seamus Culleton, who had lived in the US for over two decades while building a life in the Boston area, entered the country on a tourist visa waiver that allowed him to stay for just three months, according to a Texas court ruling.

Despite marrying a US citizen and applying for a marriage-based green card, the plasterer's attempt to secure his freedom was dismissed by a federal judge in El Paso, where he is currently being held.

In a January 23 ruling, Judge Kathleen Cardone said the visa waiver programme Culleton used meant participants give up the right to challenge deportation, except on asylum grounds.

Under the scheme, she noted, entrants 'waive any right... to contest other than on the basis of an application for asylum, any action for removal' from the US.

The waiver was designed, she said, 'to enter the country expeditiously while streamlining their removal'.

The judge also cited a 2009 precedent, stressing that the waiver still applies even when 'an individual has a pending adjustment of status application on the basis of their marriage to a US citizen