Jesus Orlando Perez Fuentes v. Kevin Raycraft et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan conditionally granted Jesus Orlando Perez Fuentes’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 mandatory detention under § 1225(b)(2)(A), governed his detention and ordered respondents to provide a bond hearing or release him.

Holdings

1. The court declined to enforce prudential exhaustion and alternatively concluded that waiver of exhaustion was appropriate.
2. Section 1226(a), rather than § 1225(b)(2)(A), governs noncitizens who have resided in the United States and were already within the country when apprehended and arrested.
3. Petitioner's current detention under the mandatory detention framework of § 1225(b)(2)(A) violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause.
4. The Detroit ICE Field Office Director was not the only proper respondent; the court retained the Detroit ICE Field Office Director, the Acting Director of ICE, and the Secretary of Homeland Security as respondents.

Questions Presented

1. Whether prudential exhaustion of administrative remedies should be required before the court adjudicated Petitioner's § 2241 detention challenge.
2. Whether 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) or the mandatory detention provision in 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A) governed Petitioner's detention.
3. Whether Petitioner's detention under the § 1225(b)(2)(A) mandatory detention framework violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause.
4. Whether the Detroit ICE Field Office Director was the only proper respondent in the habeas action.

Disposition

writ_granted