Doe v. Smith

324 F. Supp. 3d 214
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedJuly 19, 2018
DocketCivil Action No. 18-11363-FDS
StatusPublished

This text of 324 F. Supp. 3d 214 (Doe v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doe v. Smith, 324 F. Supp. 3d 214 (D.D.C. 2018).

Opinion

F. Dennis Saylor IV, United States District Judge.

This is a habeas petition involving an immigration matter. Petitioner Catherine Nantume is a Ugandan citizen who is subject to a final order of removal from the United States. She has filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging her detention by immigration authorities.

Nantume has an extensive history of immigration fraud. She entered the United States on October 2, 2001. In 2002, she entered into a sham marriage with a United States citizen. She used that "marriage" to obtain permanent residency status in 2007; she later applied to be naturalized as a citizen. Before that could happen, however, she was indicted for conspiring to defraud the United States.

Her trial took place in March 2012 in the District of Maine. Although she was not required to do so, she took the stand and testified. She claimed that the marriage was real, and told a detailed story about meeting and falling in love with her husband (who, in truth, she met the day of the wedding). The jury nonetheless convicted her on March 28, 2012.

During the sentencing phase of her case, Judge Woodcock issued an opinion concluding that her story was entirely false, and that she had perjured herself at least 17 times as to specific facts. She was ultimately sentenced to a one-year term of imprisonment.

Nantume completed her sentence in 2014; she was then taken into ICE custody. On May 12, 2014, an immigration judge ordered her removal to Uganda.

On July 30, 2014, Nantume moved to reopen her removal proceeding. She claimed, for the first time, that she had recently realized that she was a lesbian, *217and sought asylum on the ground that gays and lesbians are subject to persecution in Uganda.1 The immigration judge denied her motion to reopen, and the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") subsequently dismissed her appeal.

However, ICE was unable to secure necessary travel documents from the Ugandan government to effectuate the removal order at that time. Accordingly, she was released in November 2014, subject to various reporting conditions.

On May 1, 2018, ICE was notified that Uganda would issue the travel documents once Nantume was taken into custody. ICE then arrested her on May 31, 2018.

She filed this habeas petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241. The petition chiefly raises procedural and substantive due-process claims under the Fifth Amendment. In substance, Nantume contends that her detention is unconstitutional and that she should be released immediately.

In the meantime, on June 25, 2018, Nantume also filed a renewed motion to reopen her case, and a motion to stay her removal, with the BIA. Again, the basis for those motions is her contention that she will suffer persecution as a lesbian if forced to return to Uganda.

There are three basic issues in these proceedings. The first is whether Nantume is being held illegally in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States. It is emphatically clear that this Court has jurisdiction to decide that question. The second issue is whether Nantume should be granted asylum in the United States; the third is whether her removal should be stayed pending resolution of the asylum question. As to those issues, it is equally clear that this Court is without jurisdiction. By law, the power to establish immigration controls, and to establish a process for resolving immigration disputes, rests with Congress, subject only to the restraints of the Constitution. Congress has created a statutory procedure that does not include a role for the district courts; indeed, it has expressly stripped district courts of jurisdiction to hear such disputes. Such issues are remitted by law to the immigration authorities, subject to review by the Courts of Appeals.

Nantume has not formally moved in this Court to reopen her case or to stay her removal. Instead, she made those requests to the proper authority, the BIA. Those motions remain pending. Nonetheless, at oral argument in the hearing of this case, her counsel described her sympathetic circumstances and requested that this Court employ its equitable powers to stay her removal and keep her in the United States. When the Court questioned its power to do so, counsel responded in substance that the Court was taking an unduly narrow and myopic view of its jurisdiction, and that it was up to the Court to prevent a grave injustice. That argument, although not made as a formal motion, deserves a thoughtful response.

The persecution and mistreatment of gays and lesbians in Uganda, and throughout much of Africa and the Middle East, is well-documented.2 It is yet another chapter *218in the long catalogue of human cruelty and misery across the globe. By contrast, the United States, whatever its imperfections, is a free and tolerant society - not just of gays and lesbians, but of minorities generally. The United States is also, of course, a safe, stable, and economically prosperous nation, and its people, on the whole, are generous and compassionate.

Not surprisingly, millions of individuals attempt to enter and remain in the United States, legally and illegally, seeking to avoid discrimination, sexual abuse, torture, war, famine, extreme poverty, or even genocide. Many of those individuals apply for asylum to avoid returning to their home countries. It is no exaggeration to say that virtually all of those cases involve sympathetic facts, many to a high degree. Virtually all of the applicants will be worse off, and many will be in danger, if they are forced to return. And many, if not most, immigration matters involve separated families.3 But because our borders are not completely open, not everyone can be admitted. Someone - that is, some government official or board - has to decide which claims are sufficiently meritorious to be granted.

So it is here. Someone has to decide whether Nantume is telling the truth in connection with her claim for asylum; whether she will be subject to persecution if she returns to Uganda; whether she should be granted asylum in the United States; and whether her removal should be stayed pending those decisions. By law, those questions are not to be resolved by a United States District Judge; they are to be resolved by immigration authorities (in this case, the BIA), subject to judicial review by the United States Court of Appeals.

Put simply, there is a procedure to address such claims, and that procedure does not involve this Court. The Court is unwilling to ignore or defy the law, even in highly sympathetic circumstances.4 To do so would be a fundamental violation of its most basic responsibilities.

There is, however, a role for this Court, and that is to determine whether Nantume is being detained in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States, such that release from custody is warranted. For the reasons set forth below, the Court finds that she is not. Accordingly, the petition will be dismissed.

I. Background

A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
324 F. Supp. 3d 214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doe-v-smith-dcd-2018.