Mendoza-Ordonez v. Lowe

273 F. Supp. 3d 528
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 26, 2017
DocketCASE NO. 1:16-CV-1777
StatusPublished

This text of 273 F. Supp. 3d 528 (Mendoza-Ordonez v. Lowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mendoza-Ordonez v. Lowe, 273 F. Supp. 3d 528 (M.D. Pa. 2017).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

William W. Caldwell, United States District Judge

I, ' Introduction

Petitioner Luis Javier Mendoza-Ordo-nez (“Petitioner” or “Mendoza”) is a native and citizen of Honduras, and has been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for almost two years, since July 28, 2015. (Doe. 1 ¶¶ 6, 12, 22). Mendoza is currently incarcerated at Pike County Correctional Facility in Haw-ley, Pennsylvania, and is detained by ICE pending his ongoing withholding-of-removal proceedings under the Immigration and Nationality-Act (INA) and apparently also the Convention Against Torture (CAT). (Id. ¶ 6). The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has granted a stay of removal as it considers Mendoza’s petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) decision denying his application for withholding of removal. (Id. ¶¶ 37-38); (Doc. 1-14 at 2). Respondents are various Government and prison officials (“Respondents” or “Government”). (Id. ¶ 7-11).

On August 26, 2016, Mendoza filed the instant counseled Petition (Doc. 1) for a Writ of Habeas Corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241, alleging: (1) that his continued detention without a bond hearing is not authorized by INA § 236, 8 U.S.C. § Í226 (“§ 1226”), which governs an alien’s detention while removal proceedings are [530]*530ongoing; and (2) that even if INA § 241, 8 U.S.C. § 1231 (“§ 1231”), governs his detention, such a prolonged detention without a bond hearing violates due process guarantees of the Fifth Amendment. (Doc. 1 at 14-21).

The petition was reviewed by Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick, who, on May 24, 2017, issued a thorough Report and Recommendation (“Report”). (Doc. 22). In her Report, Judge Mehalchick, relying on this court’s recent decision in Rafael Ignacio v. Sabol, No. 1:15-CV-2423, 2016 WL 4988056 (M.D. Pa. Sept. 19, 2016) (Caldwell, J.), appeal docketed sub, nom.,1 Guerrero-Sanchez v. Sabol, No. 16-4134 (3rd Cir. Nov. 17,2016), found that Mendoza’s .continued detention was pursuant to § 1226 and therefore recommended that the petition be granted and that we enter an order referring this matter ..to. an Immigration Judge (IJ) to conduct an initial individualized bond hearing at which the Government will bear the burden of proving that Mendoza’s continued detention is necessary to secure his removal. (Id. at 16).

Before this court are both parties’ objections (Docs. 23 & 25) to Judge Mehal-chick’s Report. We have reviewed Judge Mehalchick’s thorough and well-reasoned Report, Mendoza’s Petition, its supporting documentation, and the parties’ objections. As we did. in. Ignacio, we have again carefully considered the applicable statutes at issue, and we will sustain Mendoza’s objections to the Report and will overrule the Government’s objections. We will adopt Judge Mehalchick’s Report, as modified by this opinion.

II. Background

We review the facts from Mendoza’s petition and the underlying withholding-of-removal proceedings. Mendoza was born in 1989 in Choluteca, Honduras, and has six siblings living in Honduras: four live in its capital, Tegucigalpa, and two live in Apaci-lagua. (Doc. 1 ¶ 12; Doc 1-2 at 4). Mendoza’s mother lives in the United States and is pursuing an affirmative asylum claim. (Doc. 1-2 at 4; Doc. 1-7 at 3). Mendoza’s father was a political activist for Honduras’s Liberal Party, one of the country’s two chief political parties, and was married to another woman. (Doc. 1-2 at 4). As a child, Mendoza saw his father weekly, and would attend Liberal Party meetings or accompany his father while his father did political work. (Id. at 4, 7). In 1997, Mendoza’s father lost an Apacilagua mayoral race to Armenja Aguilar, but was later elected as a councilman. (Id. at 4-5) As a result of his attempts to challenge the fairness of the election and demand financial transparency within the municipality, Mendoza’s father made political enemies in the mayor’s office and in Honduras’s National Party, the country’s other chief political party. (Id. at 5, 7).

In the early morning of January 1, 2000, when Mendoza was eleven years old, three National Party activists shot and killed Mendoza’s father for his political activities and his opposition to the National Party; Mendoza was at his aunt’s house when the assassination occurred. (Id.)., One of the activists who carried out the murder was Geraldo Valladares (“Valladares”), who was later convicted of the- atta,ck,jbut served only a six-month prison sentence. (Id.) Approximately two years later, on August 24,2002, Mendoza’s uncle, who also appears to have been politically active in [531]*531the Liberal Party,-was stabbed and killed by a different National Party activist, Di-mas Amardor. (Id. at 5). Amardor was convicted of the murder, but also-served a short prison sentence. (Id.)

Like his father and uncle, Mendoza was active in the Liberal Party. (Id. at 5, 7). In 2007, after he turned eighteen years old, Mendoza became president of a local youth division of the Party, actively participated in meetings, assisted in recruitment, and gave political speeches in villages for the Party. (Id.) Mendoza gave these speeches up until 2014, when the National Party won the local and national elections. (Id. at 5).

In 2014, Mendoza received two death threats as a result of his political activity. (Id.) On September 7, 2014, Valladares sent a message through an intermediary that if Mendoza “continued to speak pub-lically against the National Party, he would suffer the same fate as his father.” (Id.) The intermediary delivered the threat verbally, but did not harm Mendoza. (Id.) The next day, Mendoza filed a complaint with a local judge, Miriam Umanzor Aguilar, who is a National Party member and the niece of his father’s 1997 mayoral opponent. (Id.) The judge said she would act on the complaint and call Mendoza if needed. (Id.) There is no indication that action was taken on the complaint.2

After reporting the threat, Mendoza traveled to Tegucigalpa to stay with his sister. (Id. at 6). Mendoza pursued a visa to the United States, but his application was denied on October 21, 2014, after which he traveled to the United States illegally to seek refuge. (Id.) In November 2014, Mendoza unlawfully entered the United States via raft across the Rio Grande River without inspection or parole and without immigration documents. (Id. at 2, 6). On November 28, 2014, Mendoza was- apprehended at the border by Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) agents near Hidalgo, Texas. (Id. at 6; Doc. 1-8). Following an interview with -CBP agents, Mendoza was determined ineligible for . admission pursuant to INA § 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), and, on November 29, 2014, was ordered removed by a Notice and Order of Expedited Removal issued pursuant to INA § 233(b)(1), 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(1). (Docs. 1-2 at 6, 1-3, 1-4, & 1-8). Mendoza was removed to Honduras four days later. (Doc. 1-2 at 0; Doc. 1-4).

When Mendoza returned to Honduras, he lived in Tegucigalpa with his sister because he felt he could not return to Apacilagua due to its political problems. (Doc.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Vijendra K. Singh v Holder
638 F.3d 1196 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
Diop v. Ice/Homeland Security
656 F.3d 221 (Third Circuit, 2011)
Leslie v. Attorney General of United States
678 F.3d 265 (Third Circuit, 2012)
Kamal Jamai v. Sarah Saldana
648 F. App'x 225 (Third Circuit, 2016)
Raul Padilla-Ramirez v. Daniel Bible
862 F.3d 881 (Ninth Circuit, 2017)
Castro v. Dep't of Homeland Sec.
137 S. Ct. 1581 (Supreme Court, 2017)
Lora v. Shanahan
804 F.3d 601 (Second Circuit, 2015)
Guerra v. Shanahan
831 F.3d 59 (Second Circuit, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
273 F. Supp. 3d 528, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mendoza-ordonez-v-lowe-pamd-2017.