Abdigani Faisal Hussein v. Strafford County Department of Corrections Superintendent Christopher Brackett and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Boston Field Office Director Chris M. Cronen

2018 DNH 101
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Hampshire
DecidedMay 16, 2018
Docket18-cv-273-JL
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2018 DNH 101 (Abdigani Faisal Hussein v. Strafford County Department of Corrections Superintendent Christopher Brackett and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Boston Field Office Director Chris M. Cronen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abdigani Faisal Hussein v. Strafford County Department of Corrections Superintendent Christopher Brackett and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Boston Field Office Director Chris M. Cronen, 2018 DNH 101 (D.N.H. 2018).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Abdigani Faisal Hussein

v. Civil No. 18-cv-273-JL Opinion No. 2018 DNH 101

Strafford County Department of Corrections Superintendent Christopher Brackett and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Boston Field Office Director Chris M. Cronen

MEMORANDUM ORDER

This court’s subject-matter jurisdiction over this action

depends on whether the petitioner has made a colorable claim

that certain provisions of the Real ID Act, see 8 U.S.C. § 1252,

violate the United States Constitution’s Suspension Clause, U.S.

Const. art. I, § 9, cl. 2, by divesting this court of

jurisdiction to hear his habeas petition. The court denies the

respondents’ motion to dismiss the petition. While the court

does not conclude in this preliminary procedural posture that

the Real ID Act’s jurisdiction-divesting provisions violate the

Suspension Clause, the habeas petitioner’s colorable argument to

that effect makes a jurisdiction-based dismissal inappropriate

at this time.

Abdigani Faisal Hussein filed a petition for a writ of

habeas corpus, see 28 U.S.C. § 2241, and complaint for

declaratory and injunctive relief, seeking to stay his removal to his native Somalia until the Board of Immigration Appeals

(BIA) has decided his recently-filed motion to reopen his

removal proceedings, see 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7). The federal

respondents moved to dismiss Hussein’s petition and complaint,

arguing that this court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction under

8 U.S.C. § 1252. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1).

Although the respondents convincingly argue that § 1252

divests the court of jurisdiction over issues of law and fact

arising from final removal orders such as Hussein’s, the court

retains jurisdiction to adjudicate Hussein’s distinct claim that

§ 1252 impermissibly violates the Suspension Clause as applied

to him under these circumstances. Accordingly, the court denies

the respondents’ motion to dismiss Hussein’s petition.

Applicable legal standard

“Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. They

possess only that power authorized by Constitution and statute.”

United States v. Coloian, 480 F.3d 47, 50 (1st Cir. 2007)

(quoting Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 511 U.S.

375, 377 (1994)) (formatting altered). “Without jurisdiction

the court cannot proceed at all in any cause. Jurisdiction is

power to declare the law, and when it ceases to exist, the only

function remaining to the court is that of announcing the fact

2 and dismissing the cause.” Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better

Env't, 523 U.S. 83, 94 (1998).

Invoking Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), the

respondents move to dismiss Hussein’s petition and complaint for

lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The burden to prove

jurisdiction rests with the petitioner. See Acosta–Ramirez v.

Banco Popular de P.R., 712 F.3d 14, 20 (1st Cir. 2013). In

resolving a motion to dismiss on those grounds, the court draws

the facts from the petition and complaint, “credit[ing] the

[petitioner’s] well-pled factual allegations and draw[ing] all

reasonable inferences in the [petitioner’s] favor.” Merlonghi

v. United States, 620 F.3d 50, 54 (1st Cir. 2010). In doing so,

the “court may also ‘consider whatever evidence has been

submitted, such as the depositions and exhibits submitted.’”

Id. (quoting Aversa v. United States, 99 F.3d 1200, 1210 (1st

Cir. 1996)).

Background

The following factual summary takes that approach.

Hussein, a native of Somalia, is a member of the Tunni ethnic

group and a non-practicing Muslim. He fled Somalia in January

1991, after members of the United Somali Congress, a major rebel

organization, shot at him seven times and shot and killed his

mother. After living in Kenya for five years, he entered the

3 United States as a 23-year-old refugee in 1996 and became a

lawful permanent resident in 1997. He has lived and worked in

and around Portland, Maine, since 2001. He married his wife, a

United States citizen, in 2004. They have three children, all

of whom are United States citizens.

In 2003, Hussein was convicted under 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1)

of possession with intent to distribute khat, a plant which

contains cathinone, a Schedule I controlled substance, rendering

him subject to removal. See 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). His

conviction was affirmed on appeal. He then petitioned for

asylum, withholding of removal, and withholding under the

Convention Against Torture (CAT). An immigration judge denied

those petitions in August 2006, and the Board of Immigration

Appeals (BIA) and Third Circuit Court of Appeals in turn

affirmed that decision. Hussein v. Attorney General of the

United States, 273 F. App’x 147, 148 (3d Cir. 2008). Hussein

was not removed at the time. Instead, he was granted an order

of supervision, which allowed him to remain in the United States

as long as he complied with certain requirements, including

periodic “check-ins.” See 8 C.F.R. § 241.5.

Following a change in national immigration enforcement

policy, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

sought to deport Hussein in late 2017. In March 2018, he was

detained by ICE in Portland, and then transferred from the

4 Cumberland County Jail in Portland to the Strafford County House

of Corrections in Dover, New Hampshire, in preparation for

removal.

On March 28, 2018, while in custody, Hussein filed a motion

to reopen his removal proceedings with the BIA, see 8 U.S.C.

§ 1229a(c)(7), seeking deferral of removal to Somalia under the

CAT because, he contends, the country conditions in Somalia have

changed since his hearing before an immigration law judge in

2006. To qualify under the CAT, he must show that “it is more

likely than not that [he] would be tortured if removed to”

Somalia. 8 C.F.R. § 208.16(C)(2). Specifically, he contends

that al-Shabaab, a fundamentalist group allied with Al-Quaeda

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2018 DNH 101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abdigani-faisal-hussein-v-strafford-county-department-of-corrections-nhd-2018.