Ali Darwich v. Steven Kemerling, et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina addressed a motion to dismiss or transfer a 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition challenging the immigration detention of Ali Darwich. The court concluded that the petition should have been filed in the Middle District of North Carolina based on Darwich’s location or last-known location when the petition was filed, and transferred the action there under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1631 and 1406.

Holdings

1. A § 2241 petition challenging present physical custody ordinarily must be filed in the district of confinement and name the immediate custodian. Because Darwich was confined in the Middle District of North Carolina when the petition was filed, the petition should have been filed there.
2. Even assuming Darwich's location was not discoverable through reasonable inquiry, the petition should have been filed in his last-known location, the Middle District of North Carolina, against his ultimate custodian.
3. The petitioner's brief stop in Charlotte while being transported to Georgia did not establish the Western District of North Carolina as the proper filing district.
4. The action could not be transferred to the Southern District of Georgia because the petition could not have been brought there at the time it was filed. In the interest of justice, the action was transferred to the Middle District of North Carolina.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Western District of North Carolina had jurisdiction over a § 2241 petition challenging present physical custody when the petitioner was confined in the Middle District of North Carolina at the time of filing.
2. Whether the unknown-custodian exception permitted filing in the petitioner's arrest location or last-known location when the petitioner's detention facility could not be discovered through reasonable inquiry.
3. Whether the action could be transferred to the Southern District of Georgia, where the petitioner was later confined, or instead had to be transferred to the Middle District of North Carolina under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1631 and 1406.

Disposition

remanded