Summary
The United States District Court for the District of Kansas partially grants Mario Alberto Bautista Cervantes’s petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. The court holds that, because petitioner was not a newly arriving alien, the Government may not detain him under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A) without bond consideration and must either release him or provide a bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) by May 8, 2026. The court denies the petitioner’s requests for additional relief and reserves any attorney-fee request for a future motion.
Court
United States District Court for the District of Kansas
Jurisdiction
United States District Court for the District of Kansas
Decision date
April 27, 2026
Docket number
26-3089-JWL
Disposition
other
Questions Presented
- Whether the court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 to consider statutory and constitutional challenges to petitioner's immigration detention unrelated to a final order of removal.
- Whether 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A), which mandates detention of certain newly arriving aliens, authorized detention of petitioner, who had been present in the United States for years before his detention.
- Whether petitioner was entitled to consideration for release on bond under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a).
- What relief was appropriate for the statutory violation.
Holdings
- The district court had habeas corpus jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 to consider petitioner's statutory and constitutional challenges to immigration detention that were unrelated to a final order of removal.
- The Government could not detain petitioner under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A) because petitioner was not an alien newly arriving in the United States; his detention pending a final removal decision was instead governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a).
- By refusing to allow consideration of petitioner's release on bond under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), the Government violated the governing detention statutes.
- The appropriate remedy was to require respondents either to release petitioner or ensure that he received a bond hearing under § 1226(a) on the merits by May 8, 2026; the court denied additional requested relief.
Court Document
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