Teodora Cornelio Navarrete v. David Kluemper

Summary

The United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia granted Teodora Cornelio Navarrete’s amended habeas petition challenging her immigration detention. The court held that 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), rather than § 1225(b)(2), governed her detention and found that her due process rights were violated; because she had already been released, the court prohibited the respondents from re-arresting and detaining her in civil confinement pending further order.

Holdings

1. The court had jurisdiction because it was not reviewing a final order of removal and Navarrete's detention did not stem from the commencement of removal proceedings; instead, the removal proceedings followed her arrest and detention.
2. Section 1226(a), not the mandatory-detention provision in § 1225(b)(2)(A), governed Navarrete's detention because she was arrested within the interior of the United States and was not seeking admission.
3. Navarrete's detention violated due process because she was not afforded an individualized custody determination and the Government failed to establish a legitimate basis for continued confinement.
4. Release was the appropriate habeas relief, and ordering only a bond hearing would have been futile under the circumstances.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the district court had jurisdiction to review Navarrete's challenge to her immigration detention notwithstanding 8 U.S.C. §§ 1252(b)(9) and 1252(g).
2. Whether Navarrete's detention was governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) rather than the mandatory-detention provision in 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A).
3. Whether Navarrete's detention violated due process because she was detained without an individualized custody determination or a legally sufficient basis for continued confinement.
4. Whether release, rather than a bond hearing, was the appropriate habeas remedy.

Disposition

granted