The law firm representing Irish man Seamus Culleton has said he has been granted a further pause to his deportation from the United States.
However, he has been refused release from a detention facility in El Paso, Texas, his lawyers have said in a statement.
The Kilkenny native was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers last September and moved to the facility in El Paso, where he has spent the past five months trying to fight his deportation.
The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to remove the 38-year-old from the US, arguing that he has lived there illegally for nearly two decades.
BOS Legal Group has now said that an appeals court in the US has granted a temporary pause to his deportation, but refused his request to be released from the detention facility.
The firm has also said that the court has denied the US government's request for a quick resolution of his case, seeking a review of the order for his removal from the country.
Attorney Ogor Winnie Okoye has said the latest ruling "preserves the court’s ability to conduct meaningful judicial review".
She said: "A stay ensures that removal does not occur before serious statutory and constitutional questions are fully examined."
"This case presents significant legal questions regarding compliance with governing immigration statutes and regulations, including procedural safeguards required before issuance of a removal order," the firm added in its statement.
Mr Culleton entered the US in March 2009 as a tourist under the country’s visa waiver programme but remained there after the permitted 90 days.
Originally from Glenmore in Co Kilkenny, he had previously been undocumented in the US.
However, he was in the final stage of the process of obtaining a green card when he was picked up by ICE agents.
He married a US citizen in April 2025 and also held a valid work permit.
A court in Texas last January rejected Mr Culleton’s challenge to his detention and found that people who entered the US on visa-waiver programmes and overstayed their visit were not entitled to contest their deportation, other than if they had applied for asylum.
After Mr Culleton’s case came to light last month, it subsequently emerged that he, then aged 22, had been charged with the unlawful possession of drugs, possession for sale and supply, as well as obstruction in relation to an incident on 17 May 2008 in Glenmore.
After he failed to appear at a sitting of New Ross District Court to face the charges, a judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest in April 2009, one month after his arrival in the US.
