Irish teen dad set to be deported from US after overstaying visa

An Irish teenager is set to be deported from the United States this week after he overstayed his visa by seven years.

Dylan O'Riordan, 19, is set to be flown back to Ireland later this week, according to National Public Radio. He was detained by immigration services four months ago after he was arrested for domestic assault and battery when he got into a row with his now-wife, Brenna, in a shopping mall. Dylan explained to the publication:

"It was nothing at all. Some woman called the cops, said I was abusing my girlfriend."

Brenna denied that she had been assaulted and the county chose not to prosecute him, so the judge let him go. But when Dylan exited the courthouse, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were waiting to arrest him. Galway-born Dylan first arrived in the USA when he was 12 years old. Both of his parents, who had previously lived in the US and held green cards, moved the family to Boston in 2010 under the visa waiver programme. Dylan overstayed his 90-day visa and had since been in the country undocumented. He has been held for the last four months at Suffolk County House of Corrections alongside 150 men - and explained that the other detainees are surprised he was arrested. He said:

"They're like, 'Are you supposed to be here? You're basically American. You look American; you sound American.' "There's a lot of people from El Salvador, a lot of Guatemalans, couple of Haitian people, and I'm the only Irish in the whole facility. "I was aware how with Trump immigration was going to get a lot harder, but I didn't pay as much mind to it as I should have, which was my first mistake."

Dylan's lawyer, Tony Marino, told NPR that he pointed out the teenager was brought to the United States when he was a child. But, he says, the ICE won't budge on their stance. He explained:

"Their position has been, well, he waived whatever rights he had when he came. "Twelve-year-olds don't waive rights! I've never seen anything like it. I can't wrap my head around it."

Dylan and Brenna, who share a nine-month-old daughter, were married in the prison chapel last month. She told NPR that she plans to move to Ireland with their young daughter so that the family can be together. The ICE office in Boston told the publication:

"Dylan O'Riordan ... overstayed the terms of his admission by more than seven years. "ICE deportation officers encountered him in Sept 2017 after he was arrested on local criminal charges. "ICE served him with an administrative final order of removal."

Photos via Facebook/Brenna Kathleen O Riordan