Irish citizens illegally in the US under Trump?

You could still be in difficulty if they could not identify on which date you left. The Canadians do share data and leaving via Canada is probably not very different from flying directly from the US.

However, my point is that if you are prevented from leaving for a medical reason, you could in a coma in hospital, then it is possible to put things right after the event if you get to the right office.

The thing is you seem to think everything is justified. We've also got Cliona Ward who literally lived in the US since childhood legally getting caught on a pretty minor drug offence that was already expunged at the state level ending up 17 days in detainment. And that's ignoring the far more extreme cases eg people having their civil rights removed and being sent off to El Salvador with no chance of a fair trial.

But honestly, you're the guy justifying limits of one roll of toilet paper so human rights etc don't seem to register.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/08/irish-woman-cliona-ward-detained-us-immigration-released-17-days-custody

Weirdly you don't seem to hold the same feelings for Trump and his criminality. In relation to those who were sent to El Salvador, there's pretty open questions on if they were even in gangs. In fact the very deportations appear to have been illegal.

So nope, you seem to think that the Trump administration are entirely above the law and should be allowed to behave illegally, due process out the window.

Also the scenarios we have discussed didn't simply involve sending them back to their country of origin. So you're intentionally misrepresenting it.

If they are now stopping people from leaving then that is different, but I hadn't seen any accounts of that happening.

Sneak across the Canadian border and ride the rails until you get to New Foundland, from there secure working passage on a trawler to the French islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

No you aren't. There are no immigration checks on leaving the country. Your passport or US license is scanned by the tsa and the gate agents but they have nothing to do with immigration and can't see anything to do with your status. Its purely to verify your identity.

Are people that don’t overstay their visas safe? So don’t break the rules.

Exactly, for all the faux outrage this seems to be the consequences of this idiots own actions.

I prefer the phrase "undocumented guests".

There is a process to do this. A quick Google and you can find this info

VWP entrants are generally not eligible for an extension of stay or change of status.[11] However, where an emergency or unforeseen circumstance prevents the departure of a VWP entrant, USCIS may exercise discretion to grant up to 30 days to allow for satisfactory departure.[12] For those VWP entrants already granted satisfactory departure and unable to depart within this 30-day period because of an emergency or unforeseen circumstance, USCIS has the authority to provide an additional 30-day period of satisfactory departure.[13] Officers determine whether an emergency or unforeseen circumstance constitutes an emergency that merits an approval of satisfactory departure.

To request satisfactory departure from USCIS, a VWP entrant should contact the USCIS Contact Center[14] and provide proof of the emergency or unforeseen circumstance. 

The newspaper article implies that he did contact the authorities with the medical documentation, but he hadn't heard back.

The existence of this provision should have meant that he not held for long but given a 30 day extension.

From all reports he had a mental health episode which I wouldn't classify as simply idiocy.