Momennia v. Estrada

268 F. Supp. 2d 679, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10913, 2003 WL 21489731
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedJune 25, 2003
Docket3:03-cv-00525
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 268 F. Supp. 2d 679 (Momennia v. Estrada) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Momennia v. Estrada, 268 F. Supp. 2d 679, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10913, 2003 WL 21489731 (N.D. Tex. 2003).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

KAPLAN, United States Magistrate Judge.

Petitioner Mohammad Rankouhi Mo-mennia has filed an application for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241. For the reasons stated herein, the application is denied.

I.

Petitioner, a citizen and national of Iran, entered the United States as an immigrant *681 on July 16, 1983 and subsequently obtained lawful permanent resident status. (Resp. Opp’n to TRO, Exh. 4). On March 11, 1993, petitioner was convicted by an Oklahoma state court of second degree robbery, assault and battery, and pointing a firearm. {Id.). The trial court imposed concurrent prison sentences of 10 years on the robbery charge, 90 days on the assault and battery charge, and five years on the firearm charge, with all but the first five years suspended. {Id., Exh. 2). Based on those convictions, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) initiated removal proceedings. {Id., Exh. 4). 1 At a deportation hearing held on September 3, 1997, petitioner was ordered removed to Iran and released on bond pending execution of the removal order. {Id., Exh. 5). No appeal was taken to the Bureau of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). Instead, petitioner filed a motion to reopen the deportation proceedings before the immigration judge. {Id., Exh. 6). The motion was denied on November 10, 1997. {Id., Exh. 7).

On December 7,1998, petitioner filed an application for writ of habeas corpus in Oklahoma federal district court. {Id., Exh. 8). As one of his grounds for relief, petitioner alleged that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at his deportation hearing. According to petitioner:

The basis for the Petitioner’s claim is that his attorney failed to inform the court that the Petitioner had assisted the Federal Government in its efforts to solve a bombing. This act was against members of the Petitioner’s own country, and as a result he faces great danger or even death if he is forced to return to his native country.
The threat to the Petitioner’s life is so real until at one point he was offered the witness protection program. Therefore, had the attorney informed the court of the real and clear danger to the Petitioner’s life he would not have received the adverse order of deportation.

{Id., Exh. 8 at 2). The district court denied this claim, as well as petitioner’s other challenges to the removal order, 2 noting that his conclusory assertions of ineffective assistance of counsel were insufficient to merit habeas relief. Momennia v. I.N.S., No. CIV-98-1668-A, op. at 4 (W.D.Okla. May 10, 1999). Petitioner appealed this decision to the Tenth Circuit. In an unpublished opinion, the court held that petitioner’s failure to raise his “numerous claims of incompetent representation” in an administrative appeal to the BIA de *682 prived both the district court and the appellate court of subject matter jurisdiction. Momennia v. I.N.S., No. 99-6210, op. at 3-4, 215 F.3d 1337 (10th Cir. Jun. 5, 2000).

On December 20, 2002, petitioner was taken into INS custody pending his removal to Iran. This prompted a second challenge to the removal order by way of habeas corpus. In the instant case, petitioner claims that his Fifth Amendment right to substantive due process was violated through a “state-created danger.” More particularly, petitioner contends that shortly after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the FBI asked him to infiltrate the Shiite Muslim community of Iranians and Iraqis in Oklahoma for the purpose of providing the agency with information and photographs regarding the activities of suspicious persons. At the time this request was made, petitioner alleges that the FBI knew he was subject to deportation at any time and would face great danger and "virtually certain death” upon his removal to Iran. Despite this danger, petitioner states that he offered substantial assistance to the government upon the reasonable belief that the FBI would intervene on his behalf to stop his deportation. (Hab. Pet. at 4-5, ¶¶ 14-16).

As part of his habeas application filed on March 11, 2003, petitioner sought a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction preventing his removal to Iran. The court denied injunctive relief, 3 but scheduled an expedited hearing and allowed petitioner to conduct limited discovery on his claims. At a hearing held on June 23, 2003, both sides were given an opportunity to call witnesses and present additional evidence in support of their respective positions. The issues have been fully briefed by the parties and this matter is ripe for determination.

II.

The due process clause of the Fifth Amendment provides that “[n]o person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” U.S. Const, amd. V. The substantive component of this clause “protects individual liberty against ‘certain government actions regardless of the fairness of the procedures used to implement them.’ ” Collins v. City of Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 125, 112 S.Ct. 1061, 1068, 117 L.Ed.2d 261 (1992), quoting Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 331, 106 S.Ct. 662, 665, 88 L.Ed.2d 662 (1986). As a general rule, a government official has no constitutional duty to protect an individual from violent acts perpetrated by private parties. DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dep’t of Social Services, 489 U.S. 189, 197, 109 S.Ct. 998, 1004, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989). However, this rule is not absolute. “When the state, through the affirmative exercise of its powers, acts to restrain an individual’s freedom to act on his own behalf ‘through incarceration, institutionalization, or other similar restraint of personal liberty,’ the state creates a ‘special relationship’ between the individual and the state which imposes upon the state a constitutional duty to protect that individual from dangers, including, in certain circumstances, private violence.” McClendon v. City of Columbia, 305 F.3d 314, 324 (5th Cir.2002) (en banc), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 123 S.Ct. 1355, 155 L.Ed.2d 196 (2003), quoting *683 DeShaney, 109 S.Ct. at 1006. The Fifth Circuit has recognized this “special relationship” exception to DeShaney in cases where a person is involuntarily confined or otherwise restrained against his will pursuant to a governmental order or by the affirmative exercise of state power.

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Bluebook (online)
268 F. Supp. 2d 679, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10913, 2003 WL 21489731, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/momennia-v-estrada-txnd-2003.