The Irish national whose detention has sparked outrage from Irish politicians and a nearly $30,000 GoFundMe campaign has a side to his story that his supporters would rather you not hear. His own daughters say he's a deadbeat who abandoned them as toddlers, never paid a cent in child support, and skipped out on drug charges back home.
Seamus Culleton, who entered the United States in 2009 on a 90-day visa waiver and simply never left, has spent nearly five months in ICE custody at Fort Bliss in Texas, according to the NY Post. He's pleaded his case on Irish radio. His American wife has reportedly posted on TikTok about wanting him home to care for their dogs. Irish politicians have vowed to complain to the White House.
Then his twin daughters, Heather and Melissa Morrissey — about to turn 19 — went public. Their account paints a very different picture of the man the international press has been treating as a sympathetic victim of American immigration enforcement.
Culleton left Ireland when the twins were 18 months old. They never saw him in person again. No visits. No child support. Heather Morrissey told the Daily Mail plainly:
"I feel that we were born and he just up and left. He did abandon us. That's what he did."
Their mother, Margaret "Maggie" Morrissey, raised the girls alone. The twins say they haven't received "a penny" from their father. Meanwhile, supporters have raised nearly $30,000 through a GoFundMe campaign for Culleton's legal fees — a campaign that references his American wife's dogs, Caesar and Cleopatra, by name. Melissa Morrissey characterized the fundraised amount as "nearly child maintenance money."
Heather didn't mince words about the dog situation either:
"They're dogs. I understand people love animals and all that, but he has children. His dogs aren't his children."
Before Culleton ever set foot in the United States, he was already running from trouble. In 2008, he was charged in Ireland with intent to sell or supply drugs, possession for personal consumption, and obstructing a garda — an Irish police officer — in the course of duty. He failed to appear in court in New Ross, County Wexford. A district court sought a bench warrant, but it was never issued because Culleton had already left the country.
He arrived in the U.S. in 2009 under the visa waiver program, which permits a 90-day stay. He overstayed by more than 15 years.
Culleton told Irish media he held a valid U.S. work permit and had a pending green card application. The Department of Homeland Security's account doesn't corroborate any of that. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin laid out the timeline on X:
"On September 9, 2025, ICE arrested Seamus Culleton, an illegal alien from Ireland. He entered the United States in 2009 under the visa waiver program, which allows you to stay in the U.S. for 90 days without a visa."
"He failed to depart the U.S. He received full due process and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on September 10, 2025. He was offered the chance to instantly be removed to Ireland but chose to stay in ICE custody, in fact he took affirmative steps to remain in detention."
Read that again. Culleton was offered immediate removal to Ireland. He refused. He actively chose to remain detained. The man, describing his conditions as "torture" — limited outdoor time, small meals, bathrooms he called "completely nasty" — had the option to leave. He said no.
It doesn't take much imagination to figure out why an Irish national with outstanding drug charges in Ireland might prefer a Texas detention facility to a flight home. His daughter Heather seems to understand the calculus perfectly:
"He was making himself out to be a saint, like he's done nothing wrong, like he knows that there are warrants here for his arrest and that was going to come out."
Culleton was arrested by ICE after stopping at a Home Depot in the Boston area, where he'd been running a construction company. He was flown more than 2,000 miles to the Fort Bliss facility. An immigration judge issued a final order of removal within a single day of his arrest. That's not a broken system — that's a system working with unusual efficiency.
His contact with his own daughters since detention has been minimal. Heather said she had to ask a relative to prompt Culleton to call her. He did — once, briefly.
"He told me that he got detained by ICE… he doesn't know when he's going to get out. That was about it. I haven't heard from him since then."
Culleton's case has followed a familiar script. An illegal immigrant gets detained. Sympathetic media coverage flows. A GoFundMe appears. Politicians grandstand. The detainee describes harsh conditions to reporters. The audience is invited to feel outrage on his behalf.
What makes this case unusual is that the man's own children punctured the narrative. They didn't need to be prompted by any political operation or conservative media outlet. They simply saw their absent father being lionized and decided to speak up.
Irish politicians, as reported by the NY Post, have vowed to complain to the White House about Culleton's treatment. One wonders whether those same politicians have any interest in the welfare of two young women in County Wexford who grew up without a father or his financial support. One wonders whether they've looked into the drug charges he fled.
The instinct to rally around a countryman detained abroad is understandable. But sympathy shouldn't be dispensed without scrutiny. Culleton overstayed a tourist visa by more than 15 years. He was offered a ticket home and refused it. He has unresolved criminal charges in his own country. He left two infant daughters behind and, by their account, never looked back.
Immigration enforcement doesn't become unjust because the person being enforced against is white, European, or sympathetic on the radio. The law Culleton broke isn't complicated. He was allowed 90 days. He took more than 5,800. When the system finally caught up, he received due process, a hearing, and an offer of immediate return. He's still in detention because he chose to be.
The daughters' intervention is clarifying in another way. The people most harmed by Culleton's choices aren't American taxpayers or DHS agents — they're two young Irish women who grew up wondering why their father chose a new life in Boston over them. Nearly $30,000 in donations for a man who never sent a penny to his own children.
That's not a story about a broken immigration system. That's a story about a man whose choices finally caught up with him — and whose daughters dared to say so out loud.