Davis v. Garland

District Court, W.D. New York·Decided July 10, 2024·No. 1:24-cv-00223·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

DAMION G.V. DAVIS,

Petitioner,

v. 24-CV-223-LJV DECISION & ORDER MERRICK B. GARLAND, et al.,1

Respondents.

The pro se petitioner, Damion G.V. Davis, has been detained in the custody of the United States Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) since October 2019—more than four and a half years. Docket Item 1.2 On March 12, 2024, Davis filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, challenging the validity of his detention at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility (“BFDF”) in Batavia, New York.3 The respondents—Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, DHS Field Office Director Thomas Brophy, and BFDF Officer-in-Charge Jeffrey Searls4 (collectively “the government”)—then moved to dismiss the petition,

1 Davis’s petition and thus the official case caption do not include periods after Davis’s second middle initial and Garland’s middle initial. The Clerk of the Court shall correct that error. 2 Unless otherwise noted, docket citations are to case number 24-cv-223, and page numbers in docket citations refer to ECF pagination. 3 Davis filed his petition in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Docket Item 1. On March 14, 2024, the case was transferred to this Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1406 on venue grounds. Docket Item 6. 4 All respondents are sued in their official capacities. Docket Item 1 at 3. Docket Item 12, and Davis responded to that motion, Docket Item 13.5 Davis also has moved for the appointment of counsel. Docket Item 14. For the reasons that follow, this Court grants the government’s motion and dismisses the petition without prejudice. Davis’s motion for the appointment of counsel is denied as moot.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND6

Davis is a native of Jamaica. Docket Item 1 at ¶ 8. He “entered [t]he United States in 1989 [as a lawful permanent resident] to be with his American father, and he has been living [here] ever since.” Id.; see id. at 30; see also Davis v. Att’y Gen., 2024 WL 866034, at *1 (3d Cir. Feb. 29, 2024) (“Davis was admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident on November 2, 1989, when he was 11.”).

5 Before the respondents moved to dismiss Davis’s petition, he filed a memorandum in support of it. See Docket Item 11. 6 The following facts are taken from Davis’s petition, Docket Item 1. The Court also takes judicial notice of Davis’s immigration proceedings, including previous decisions issued by this Court and other courts. See Spiegelmann v. Erfe, 2018 WL 1582549, at *1 (D. Conn. Mar. 29, 2018) (“In deciding a motion to dismiss a habeas petition, the Court must confine its consideration to facts stated on the face of the petition, in documents appended to the petition or incorporated in the petition by reference, and to matters of which judicial notice may be taken.” (alterations, citation, and internal quotation marks omitted)); Pina Morocho v. Mayorkas, 2023 WL 1995283, at *3 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 25, 2023) (“In addition to the facts alleged in the petition itself, a court faced with a Rule 12(b)(6) motion may consider any matter of which it may take judicial notice, including the proceedings of other courts of record—‘not for the truth of the matters asserted in the other litigation, but rather to establish the fact of such litigation and related filings.’” (quoting Kramer v. Time Warner Inc., 937 F.2d 767, 774 (2d Cir. 1991))), report and recommendation adopted sub nom. Morocho v. Mayorkas, 2023 WL 1993881 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 14, 2023). On October 17, 2019, DHS “served Davis with a notice to appear, charging him as removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(E)(ii) for violating a protective order.” Davis, 2024 WL 866034, at *1; Docket Item 12-4 at 146 (notice to appear). On the same day, several ICE agents “entered [Davis’s] home and took [him] into custody.” Docket Item 1 at ¶ 9. “DHS later added [other] charges of removability based on Davis’s . . . criminal

history.” Davis, 2024 WL 866034, at *1. On February 21, 2020, an immigration judge “sustained the charge of removability under certain grounds.” Id.; Docket Item 12-4 at 153-56 (immigration judge’s decision); Docket Item 1 at ¶ 9 (stating that due “to his criminal convictions, . . . Davis was ordered removed from [the United States] in 2020”). Davis appealed that decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals, “which affirmed the [i]mmigration [j]udge’s decision.” Davis, 2024 WL 866034, at *1. Davis then filed a petition for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Id. He argued that “he had derived citizenship from his father” under a

previous version of 8 U.S.C. § 1432(a)(3) that had been repealed in 2000. Davis, 2024 WL 866034, at *1. Davis also contended—“[f]or the first time”—that “the second clause of [the same repealed statute] . . . violate[d] the equal protection guarantees of the Fifth Amendment as applied to him.” Id. On December 30, 2021, a Third Circuit panel stayed Davis’s removal and appointed counsel for Davis’s appeal. See Davis v. Att’y Gen., Case No. 21-2235, Docket Item 34 (3d Cir. Dec. 30, 2021). On June 9, 2022, while his petition for review was pending before the Third Circuit, Davis filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in this Court (“the June 2022 habeas action”).7 Davis v. Garland, Case No. 22-cv-443, Docket Item 1 (W.D.N.Y. June 9, 2022). On February 7, 2023, this Court granted his petition in part. Davis v. Garland, 2023 WL 1793575, at *9 (W.D.N.Y. Feb. 7, 2023), appeal withdrawn, 2023 WL 6897443 (2d Cir. July 27, 2023). More specifically, this Court found that Davis’s continued detention, absent a constitutionally required bond hearing, violated his right to

procedural due process. Id. at *4-9. It therefore ordered that Davis must be released unless, within 14 calendar days from the date of this decision and order, the government demonstrates by clear and convincing evidence before a neutral decisionmaker that Davis’s continued detention is necessary to serve a compelling regulatory purpose, such as minimizing risk of flight or protecting others or the community.

7 Before filing a habeas petition in this District, Davis filed two petitions for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. See Davis v. Att’y Gen., Case No. 21-cv-1260, Docket Item 1 (M.D. Pa. July 19, 2021); Davis v. Garland, Case No. 22-cv-20, Docket Item 1 (M.D. Pa. Jan. 4, 2022). On June 13, 2022, Davis’s first petition was dismissed after he received a bond hearing in April 2022, see Davis, Case No. 22-cv-443, Docket Item 12-2 at 219-35; Davis’s second petition was dismissed for the same reason a few months later, see Davis v. Warden of Pike Cnty. Corr. Facility, 2022 WL 4391686 (M.D. Pa. Aug. 18, 2022), report and recommendation adopted, 2022 WL 4389543 (M.D. Pa. Sept. 22, 2022). See Davis v. Garland, 2022 WL 17155828, at *2 (W.D.N.Y. Nov. 22, 2022) (summarizing this history). But in considering Davis’s petition in the June 2022 habeas action, this Court held that because the immigration judge who conducted the April 2022 bond hearing “did not consider alternatives to detention before denying Davis’s release, his continued detention violate[d] due process.” Davis v.

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