Melnyk Oleksandr Vladimirovich aka Oleksandr Vladimirovich Melnyk v. Thomas Giles, et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California denied an immigration detainee’s 28 U.S.C. § 2241 habeas petition challenging his continued detention. The court held that although the petitioner had initially been granted Temporary Protected Status, USCIS withdrew that status after finding him statutorily ineligible based on prior convictions, making his continued detention lawful.

Holdings

1. A person with valid Temporary Protected Status may not be detained on the basis of immigration status or removed while TPS is in effect, but those protections did not apply after USCIS withdrew Petitioner's TPS.
2. An arriving alien subject to ongoing removal proceedings must be detained under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(1)(B)(ii) until those proceedings conclude.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Petitioner's initial approval and prima facie eligibility for Temporary Protected Status barred his detention and removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1254a.
2. Whether USCIS's withdrawal of Petitioner's TPS eliminated the statutory protections against detention.
3. Whether Petitioner's detention as an arriving alien during ongoing removal proceedings was mandatory under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b).

Disposition

dismissed