Pedro Morales Gonzalez v. Kevin Raycraft et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan conditionally granted Pedro Morales Gonzalez’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), governed his detention and concluded that his detention violated the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. Respondents were ordered to provide a bond hearing within five business days or release him, and certain respondents were dismissed.

Holdings

1. The court declined to enforce prudential exhaustion against Petitioner and alternatively held that waiver of exhaustion was appropriate.
2. Section 1226(a), not 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A), governs noncitizens who have resided in the United States and were already within the United States when apprehended and arrested.
3. Petitioner's current detention under the mandatory-detention framework of 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A) violated the Fifth Amendment 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 and the Secretary of Homeland Security, while dismissing the Department of Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

Questions Presented

1. Whether prudential exhaustion of administrative remedies should be enforced against Petitioner's § 2241 challenge to immigration detention.
2. Whether 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A), rather than 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), governed Petitioner's detention.
3. Whether Petitioner's detention under the mandatory-detention framework of § 1225(b)(2)(A) violated the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause.
4. Whether the Detroit ICE Field Office Director was the only proper respondent and whether other respondents should be dismissed.

Disposition

writ_granted