Irish illegal migrants urged to steer clear of US St Patrick's Day celebrations amid fears of Ice crackdown

Focus has increased on Irish detainees after Seamus Culleton described the conditions of the camp he was in as "like a modern-day concentration camp".

The Boston-based immigrant was detained by Ice last year while applying for a green card and was taken to a detention centre in El Paso, Texas.

James P Cavanaugh, an attorney and county commissioner in Omaha, Nebraska, said there were concerns about Ice's activities last year during Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo.

Mr Cavanaugh, who works with people seeking to gain rights to overseas citizenships, said Ice agents attended public celebrations of the holiday.

He told The Times: “Folks who have maybe not perfect documentation would be very, very leery to go out to St Patrick’s Day; of course, there is a huge turnout of Irish, Irish-Americans, Irish everything.

"There’ll be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, nationwide coming out and it’ll be very interesting to see how that plays out."

He added there was a real fear Ice agents could attend St. Patrick's Day events "and just start taking people down", describing the immigration agency as "very aggressive".

Mr Cavanaugh said he had heard anecdotes of some Irish groups having problems gaining visas to enter America for the holiday.

Brian O’Dwyer, chairman emeritus and founder of the Emerald Isle Immigration Centre, said he personally knows families separated as a result of Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

He said: "There’s definitely been fathers brought back to Ireland and teenage kids and the mother here in the States. The mother has decided to stay, the kids are Americans.

"They have their friends, they have their life here. The question of what you do with the kids? Send them back to Ireland, or try and maintain their house here."

Ice figures revealed there were 12 Irish citizens in its custody up until November 23 last year.

The number of Irish citizens deported in the last year, meanwhile, has surged by nearly 80 per cent.

Some 107 Irish citizens have been removed from the US between October 1, 2024, and September 13 last year.

Daniel James Cummins, 36, from Balinteer in Dublin, is an example of another Irishman held by Ice.

Mr Cummins is being held in Golden State Annex, one of Ice's six California detention facilities, and represented by Robert Cummings.

Mr Cummings has now been ordered by a California federal judge to explain why he shouldn't face sanctions over potential AI references and hallucinated case citations.

Cummings told the Sunday Times the issue was being rectified and that the filings in question referred to cases his office had handled.

He claimed the conditions inside Mr Cummins's detention centre were difficult, with detainees being "shoulder to shoulder".

Micheal Martin, the Taoiseach, will visit Washington next next month for St Patrick's Day events.

Government sources believe it is unlikely the topic of Ice will come up, with more focus being placed on routes to "regularise" the status of undocumented Irish people, as deportations date back to Obama's administration.