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Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months

theguardian.com

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Re: Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months

#131

Post by profsummergig »

dalyons wrote: post #106
profsummergig wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they are in the US on a work-permit, they have to follow the limitations of the work-permit. They are not free to follow the affordances available to people who are outside the US. For most temporary work-permits, owning a business is not permitted. The govt. wants the worker to work for their sponsor, not own a business. After one gets a GC (i.e. permanent residence), one is free to work for anyone, or start busi…

That’s not actually quite true. You can own a business on a work permit, you just can’t work for it. Which is mostly a pointless arrangement, but possible.

This is a more accurate take. That you can own businesses, but you can't work for them without an appropriate work-permit. He was working for his businesses, which explains why he's in a pickle.

Re: Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months

#132

Post by AnnikaL »

catlikesshrimp wrote: post #3
palmotea wrote: post #2

> Originally from County Kilkenny, Culleton has lived in the US for more than 20 years, is married to a US citizen and runs a plastering business in the Boston area. > ... > Culleton said that when he was arrested he was carrying a Massachusetts driving licence and a valid work permit issued as part of an application for a green card that he initiated in April 2025. He has a final interview remaining. Something doesn…

It is not the same thing, but I have an aunt who lived in the US for some 30 years on a green card. She had been working all that time (employed) and she owned an apartment in Miami. She didn't give a royal fuck about citizenship, and only acquired it some 10 or 15 years ago due to mounting pressure from family. There is no doubt it was the best course of action given the current government actions. Edit: Moreover, s…

Green cards are for permanent residency, so it makes sense to me that someone would live in the US for 30 years with one. That seems very different than spending over a decade in the US without any permanent status, just temporary visas.

Re: Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months

#133

Post by insane_dreamer »

tpm wrote: post #124
kcplate wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US it’s easier. Certain states will issue you a drivers license even with a questionable immigration status. Once you get that, maintaining it is easy for long periods of time….basically obey the traffic laws and don’t drink and drive take an eye test and written test every 5-7 years and you are golden and keep it. With a DL check cashing is a snap and it looked like this guy was a building sub-contractor whic…

Thank you, this is a valuable perspective. So essentially every person that lives this way doesn't pay income tax (and/or possibly other taxes) and the states, and most of the time the federal government too, just don't care?

you can still file taxes regardless of your immigration status if you can get an SSN. It used to be easy to do that using your DL. So you have people who have been in the country for many years and have an SSN, pay taxes, etc., but technically are still "undocumented"

Re: Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months

#134

Post by tpm »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #133
tpm wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you, this is a valuable perspective. So essentially every person that lives this way doesn't pay income tax (and/or possibly other taxes) and the states, and most of the time the federal government too, just don't care?

you can still file taxes regardless of your immigration status if you can get an SSN. It used to be easy to do that using your DL. So you have people who have been in the country for many years and have an SSN, pay taxes, etc., but technically are still "undocumented"

Oh wow, I didn't know that.

Re: Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months

#135

Post by Natfan »

rjrjrjrj wrote: post #73
stackskipton wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My opinion is probably not but this is ultimately a political conversation. The article is extremely light on details but fact he doesn't have a Green Card/Lawful Permanent Resident yet would indicate that at some point of his time in United States, he was illegally present, probably for a while. Sure, he's on path, MAYBE (that's up to immigration courts), to legal status but he's not quite there yet and it's one of…

> it's one of those "Are we going to forgive past transgressions?" For ICE enthusiasts, forgiveness is reserved for Presidential candidates.

only white male racist presidential candidates
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