Marcelo Gonzalez Lopez v. Kevin Raycraft, etc., et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio conditionally granted Marcelo Gonzalez Lopez’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. The court held that 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), rather than the mandatory-detention provision in § 1225(b)(2)(A), governs the detention of a noncitizen who had lived in the United States for many years before being detained and was not seeking lawful entry. Respondents were ordered to provide a bond hearing within 10 business days or release Lopez, and to file a compliance report.

Holdings

1. The court may waive prudential administrative exhaustion when exhaustion would be futile, would cause hardship or delay, or would not afford the petitioner the requested relief; exhaustion was waived here.
2. Section 1226(a), not § 1225(b)(2)(A), governs the detention of a noncitizen who has resided in the United States for years and was arrested while already in the country rather than while seeking lawful entry.
3. Because § 1226(a) governs Petitioner's detention, he is entitled to a bond hearing, and Respondents' application of § 1225(b)(2)(A) to deny him that hearing violated his due process rights.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the court should waive or excuse prudential administrative exhaustion of Petitioner's detention and due process claims.
2. Whether a noncitizen who has lived in the United States for years and was arrested while already in the country is detained under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A)'s mandatory-detention provision or 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a)'s discretionary detention provision.
3. Whether Respondents' refusal to provide a bond hearing violated Petitioner's Fifth Amendment due process rights.
4. What relief should be ordered if § 1226(a) governs Petitioner's detention.

Disposition

writ_granted