Irish Tourist Detained for Visa Overstay Warns: “Nobody Is Safe from the System”

Dublin / Washington, D.C. – July 16: An Irish citizen has spoken out about his harrowing experience in U.S. immigration detention after overstaying his visa waiver by just three days, warning that “nobody is safe” from the American immigration enforcement system once they are caught in it.

Thomas, a 35-year-old tech worker from Ireland, traveled to West Virginia last year to visit his girlfriend under the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, which permits short-term visits of up to 90 days. He was scheduled to return home in December, but a medical issue prevented him from flying as planned.

Just three days after his permitted stay expired, an unrelated encounter with local police led to his detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Although he was initially released on bond, he was later re-detained and transferred to an ICE facility nearly 100 miles away in Folkston, Georgia.

Speaking to The Guardian from his home in Ireland following his eventual release, Thomas described a 100-day ordeal in which he was shuffled through three detention centers with no clear information about when—or if—he would be released. He requested to be identified only by a pseudonym due to fears of future repercussions from U.S. immigration authorities.

Despite his willingness to voluntarily depart the United States, Thomas remained in custody during a period of heightened immigration enforcement following the inauguration of former President Donald Trump.

“At one point, I thought I was finally being sent home,” Thomas said. In mid-February, he and roughly 50 other detainees were told they were being moved. Instead, they were shackled at the wrists, waist, and ankles and transported four hours to a federal prison in Atlanta operated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BoP)—a facility designed for criminal offenders, not immigration detainees.

Thomas described conditions in the prison as significantly worse than those in ICE detention. He reported unsanitary living quarters with roaches and rodents, bunk beds missing ladders, inadequate bedding, and a lack of basic hygiene supplies.

“We were issued old, torn underwear with brown stains, some jumpsuits had holes and what looked like blood on them,” he recounted. “Toilets could only be flushed three times per hour, and we received just one roll of toilet paper each week.”

Meals were sparse and unappetizing. “The food was disgusting—strange meat with bones, very little nutrition. I was often cold and hungry.”

Thomas also alleged that the prison staff had no knowledge of why the group had been transferred there. “They told us directly that they were treating us as BoP prisoners, not as immigration detainees,” he said. “We were treated as less than human.”

His case has raised renewed concerns about the treatment of non-criminal immigration detainees under the U.S. enforcement regime, particularly in instances involving minor visa infractions.

While Thomas is now safely back in Ireland, his experience has left lasting trauma—and a warning for others. “Nobody is safe from the system if they get pulled into it,” he said.