Cancino Castellar v. Mayorkas

District Court, S.D. California·Decided August 30, 2021·No. 3:17-cv-00491·Unknown

Opinion

JOSE ORLANDO CANCINO Case No. 17-cv-00491-BAS-AHG CASTELLAR, et al., ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFFS’ Plaintiffs, v. RECONSIDERATION (ECF No. 137)

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, et al., Defendants. In this motion for reconsideration, Plaintiffs1 ask the Court to reinstate their Fourth Amendment claims in light of Gonzalez v. U.S. Immigr. & Customs Enf’t, 975 F.3d 788 (9th Cir. 2020), and Dep’t of Homeland Sec. v. Regents of Univ. of Cal., 140 S. Ct. 1891 (2020). The Court is asked to decide whether the two cases constitute an intervening change in controlling law that requires altering the Court’s prior rulings. In the prior rulings, the Court found that: (1) 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(9) bars jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claim challenging continued detention beyond 48 hours without a determination of probable cause by a neutral decisionmaker (ECF No. 56 at 11–13) and (2) 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g) bars jurisdiction over Plaintiff Gonzalez’s Fourth Amendment claim 27 1 The parties use the terms “Plaintiff-Petitioners” and “Defendant-Respondents.” For ease, the because he was initially placed into mandatory detention as a result of an expedited removal proceeding (ECF No. 49 at 14–15). Because neither Gonzalez nor Regents is irreconcilable with, or creates a significant shift away from, this Court’s reasoning behind the dismissal of Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claims, the Court denies Plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration. I. RELEVANT BACKGROUND2 Plaintiffs filed the putative class action complaint and habeas petition (the “Complaint”), alleging that Defendants have a “policy and practice of detaining individuals for extended periods without promptly presenting them for an initial hearing before an immigration judge or promptly seeking judicial review of probable cause for detention.” (Compl. ¶¶ 1, 4–6.) Each Plaintiff was taken into custody by various immigration enforcement agencies and detained pursuant to Defendants’ alleged policy. (Id. ¶¶ 47–49.) Plaintiffs alleged that “many individuals” who have claims to relief from removal “routinely languish in detention for two months or longer before they see a judge” because of Defendants’ alleged policy. (Id. ¶ 1.) The Complaint challenged Defendants’ conduct as violating (1) detained individuals’ Fifth Amendment procedural and substantive due process rights by causing detention without prompt presentment, (2) their Fourth Amendment rights to a prompt judicial determination of whether probable cause justifies their detention, and (3) the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. §§ 706(1), 706(2)(A)–(D). (Id. ¶¶ 38– 44, 75–80 (Fifth Amendment); id. ¶¶ 81–84 (Fourth Amendment); id. ¶¶ 85–90 (APA).) Plaintiffs requested declaratory relief, an injunction, and the issuance of a writ of habeas “commanding the release of Plaintiff-Petitioners and class members from detention” to the extent their right to prompt presentment and probable cause determination was violated. 27 2 The Court’s earlier Orders discuss in detail the factual allegations and history of this case. (ECF (Id. at 23.) Defendants moved to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1) and for failure to state a claim pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). (ECF No. 28.) On February 8, 2018, the Court granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. (ECF No. 49.) The Court determined that it lacks jurisdiction over Gonzalez’s Fourth Amendment probable cause claim pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g) because he was initially placed into mandatory detention as a result of expedited removal proceedings. (Id. at 15.) The Court further determined that 8 U.S.C. §§ 1252(a)(5) and 1252(b)(9) deprive it of jurisdiction over Cancino’s and Hernandez’s Fourth Amendment claims and all Plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment claims because those claims arise from removal proceedings. (Id. at 22–27.) The Court concluded that the statutory provisions require Plaintiffs to raise these claims in in a petition for review (“PFR”). (Id.) Lastly, the Court determined that Plaintiffs’ request for habeas relief did not prevent the channeling of their claims. (Id. at 33–41.) The Court dismissed the Complaint, but granted Plaintiffs’ leave to amend “to assert claims over which th[e] Court may properly exercise jurisdiction.” (Id. at 42.) On February 27, 2018, the Supreme Court decided Jennings v. Rodriguez, 138 S. Ct. 830 (2018). Plaintiffs moved for reconsideration of the Order’s Section 1252(b)(9) conclusions. (ECF No. 50.) The Court applied Jennings by asking whether the legal questions raised by Plaintiffs’ claims arose from the removal proceedings within the scope of Section 1252(b)(9). (ECF No. 56 at 9:5–8 (citing Jennings, at 841 n.3)). As to Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claims, the Court identified the following legal question: whether, after 48 hours of arrest and before an initial master calendar hearing, a detainee should be provided an independent probable cause determination of the detainee’s removability. (Id. at 11:21–22.) Because the probable cause determination requested by Plaintiffs would not concern any purely custodial matters such as flight risk but only scrutinize the individual’s removability, the Court concluded that Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claims raised legal questions that arose from an action taken or proceeding brought to remove an alien and are thus barred under Section 1252(b)(9). (Id. at 12:5–10, n.7.) As to the Fifth Amendment claims, the Court found that Plaintiffs raised the following legal question: whether the government violates the Fifth Amendment by detaining individuals without promptly presenting them before a judge. (ECF No. 56 at 13:19–22.) Because the resolution of that question would require examining only the “separate conduct” of immigration officials that causes a delay of the process by which the removability is determined and not the detainee’s removability itself, the Court concluded that the Fifth Amendment claims were outside the scope of Section 1252(b)(9). Accordingly, the Court reinstated Plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment claims but not the Fourth Amendment claims. Defendants renewed the motion to dismiss the Complaint. (ECF No. 60.) The Court granted the motion in part and denied it in part. (ECF No. 63.) The Court dismissed Plaintiff Gonzalez’s procedural due process claim and all Plaintiffs’ Section 706(1) APA claims but declined to dismiss other Plaintiffs’ procedural due process claims and all Plaintiffs’ substantive due process claims. (Id.) On June 18, 2020, the Supreme Court decided Dep’t of Homeland Sec. v. Regents of the Univ. of California, 140 S. Ct. 1891 (2020), and on September 11, 2020, the Ninth Circuit decided Gonzalez v. U.S. Immigr. & Customs Enf’t, 975 F.3d 788 (9th Cir. 2020). Plaintiffs move for reconsideration of the Court’s prior rulings dismissing Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. (ECF No. 177.) The Court held an oral argument. (ECF No. 177.) The motion for reconsideration is ripe for decision. “Reconsideration is appropriate if the district court (1) is presented with newly discovered evidence, (2) committed clear error or the initial decision was manifes

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