On March 12th of this year, a 35-year-old Irishman dressed in an orange jumpsuit watched coverage of Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s visit to the White House while detained in a US prison.
His hands and feet were cuffed at the time of the televised St Patrick’s Day celebrations as he was being moved, he said, adding that it was a moment he will “never forget.”
The man, who wished to be identified as Thomas, returned home to Ireland in late March. As reported in the Guardian on Tuesday, he had been detained by US immigration officials for about 100 days in total in three separate facilities.
Now banned from travelling to the US for ten years, he said those visiting should take immigration rules “very seriously”.
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Thomas, who works in the tech sector, travelled to the US to visit his girlfriend in West Virginia late last year under the ESTA visa waiver programme which allows tourists to visit the US for a maximum of 90 days.
However, after seriously injuring his calf, he was advised to avoid flying for at least eight weeks due to a risk of blood clots, which meant his stay would exceed the 90 days.
After overstaying his travel by three days, Thomas, who had booked a flight home for the following week was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after suffering a mental health episode while in a hotel.
He had received extensive inpatient treatment for mental health difficulties in Ireland shortly before travelling, and did not have access to his medication while in the US for several weeks, he said.
“I was arrested on a Sunday and the next day, they released me. When I turned around, the ICE agents arrested me,” he said, speaking to The Irish Times.
He spent three weeks in a county jail before he was transported about 160km away to the Folkston ICE Processing Centre in Georgia, where he spent a further two months.
“It took a while to get my medication but I got it eventually,” he said.
A lawyer representing him had initially applied for a voluntary departure, though this was denied, he said. Thomas puts the length of his detention down to “red tape.”
He was then taken to a federal prison in Atlanta for a further five weeks or so.
“Believe it or not, the Ice detention place was better run than the federal prison. When I went to Atlanta, it was grim, it was like a basement with no sunlight,” he said. “There were riots, stabbings, fights, everything you could imagine and I was just thrown in the middle of it.”
His mother and father were “extremely concerned” and in contact with Irish Government officials throughout.
“I didn’t know when I was getting home,” he said.
He expressed feeling let down by Irish authorities throughout his detention.
“I spent Christmas in there, New Year’s, Valentine’s, kids’ birthdays. It was the first time I wasn’t with my kids at Christmas, it was the first time I’ve ever missed a kid’s birthday,” he said.
When he learnt that he would be returning home in late March, he said he felt fear, rather than joy.
“I hadn’t heard from work, I didn’t know what was happening with my job, I didn’t know what was happening with my kids.
“I was scared, I didn’t know what was going to be on the other side. I had 22 hours a day locked in a room for months, staring at the ceiling with my own thoughts,” he said.
He is now back at work, though his children do not understand what happened to him.
“I’m still trying to build those relationships back up, I missed a lot,” he said.
