The Irish Times reports on the continued imprisonment of Seamus Culleton of Wakfield, an Irishman married to an American woman who was picked up by ICE at a Home Depot in September as he was picking up supplies at a local Home Depot and has been locked away ever since.

Culleton is currently being stored at Camp East Montana, a sprawling collection of tents on land at an Army base in El Paso, TX that was used as a Japanese-immigrant internment camp in World War II.

The ACLU recently reported "a disturbing pattern of abuses, including beatings and sexual abuse by officers against detained immigrants, beatings and coercive threats to compel deportation to third countries, medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of meaningful access to counsel, among other rights violations" at the camp - and the recent beating death of a 55-year-old father by guards.

On Jan. 23, a federal judge in El Paso denied Culleton's motion for freedom as he fought to stay in the US, ruling that despite ICE screwing up his paperwork, he had no right to be here - and that his marriage to an American and their separate pending application to translate that into a Green Card and permanent residence was totally separate from the fact he overstayed a visa-waived tourist stay in 2009 and had been ruled ready for deportation.

The judge said Culleton could appeal his continued imprisonment in a tent camp only if his stay becomes unreasonably long, which the Supreme Court ruled in 2001 means at least six months.

The judge described ICE's paperwork foul ups:

Finally, the Court admonishes Respondents [ICE] for the procedural irregularities permeating this matter. Most notably, Culleton was initially identified as a VWP [visa-waived tourist] overstay, subject to prompt removal with no right to a bond hearing. Yet, at some point, Respondents confused Culleton as having entered under a non-immigrant visa, and provided him with a bond hearing, at which bond was granted. See Pet. Ex. H ("IJ Order"). This necessitated Respondents to file a motion for reconsideration, in which they correctly reasserted that Culleton was actually subject to removal under the VWP. These mistakes muddy the record and undermine faith in the system. Undoubtedly, they also caused agony for Culleton and his wife, who thought for a moment that he would be released on bond and thus permitted to adjust his status. Nonetheless ... this Court is without authority to provide Culleton with any relief.