'Treated less than human, room infested with cockroaches': Irish man's horrifying ordeal in jail for overstaying US visit by 3 days

An Irish tech worker visited the US to meet his girlfriend last fall, but little did he know he will be jailed by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. His fault was just that he overstayed there for three days due to health issues.

35-year-old Thomas, father to three from Ireland, went to West Virginia to meet his girlfriend. It was not the first time he visited America and was authorised to travel under a visa waiver program that permits tourists to stay in the country for 90 days.

He was about to return to Ireland in December, but was unable to fly due to health concerns, according to his media reports. He had to overstay for only three days in the US, however, fate had something else for him.

An encounter with the ICE officials changed everything as he landed in their custody for overstaying. Thomas shared his ordeal after he was detained by the ICE in three difficult facilities. He spent around 100 days in jail with no clarity about why he was being held.

"Nobody is safe from the system if they get pulled into it," Thomas said in an interview with the Guardian after he came back to Ireland.

He, however, agreed to deportation when he was arrested, but remained in ICE detention. US President Donald Trump has been intensifying policies against immigrants and forcing mass detention and deportation.

Thomas describes his ordeal during detention

In an interview with the Guardian, Thomas revealed that he was subject to brutal conditions while in detention.

As there was overcrowding in detention, Thomas was asked to stay in custody in a federal prison for criminal defendants, even though he was not really a criminal.

He even tried to contact the Irish and embassies and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to seek an extension, but he did not hear back. After two months of detention, the authorities were preparing to move them. Thomas thought he was finally going home. But, he and the other detainees were shackled around their wrists, waists, and legs and transported four hours to a federal correctional institution in Atlanta, a prison run by the US Bureau of Prisons (BoP).

He continued, saying that the treatment at BoP was worse than ICE detention. "They were not prepared for us whatsoever.” They were forced to stay in an area with dirty mattresses, cockroaches and mice, where some bunkbeds lacked ladders, forcing people to climb to the top bed, he said.

The facilities gave him a ripped, pair of used underwear with brown stains, while some jumpsuits he got appeared to have bloodstains and holes.

The food they got was "disgusting slop" including some kind of mysterious meat that at times appeared to have chunks of bones. He got a thin blanket even though it was extremely cold.

“The staff didn’t know why we were there and they were treating us exactly as they would treat BoP prisoners, and they told us that,” Thomas said. “We were treated less than human.”

He, along with other detainees, even requested medical visits, but was being denied multiple times. "I heard people crying for doctors, saying they couldn’t breathe, and staff would just say, ‘Well, I’m not a doctor,’ and walk away.”

Later in March, Thomas was sent back to Ireland and was banned from entering America for 10 years.