MONTANO v. PETERS

• Court: District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
• Decided: September 30, 2025
• Docket: 3:24-cv-00143
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

WILFRIDO MONTANO, ) ) Petitioner, ) ) v. ) ) Civil Action No. 3:24-143 MICHAEL UNDERWOOD, WARDEN FCI ) Judge Nora Barry Fischer LORETTO, et al., ) Magistrate Judge Keith A. Pesto ) Respondents. )

MEMORANDUM ORDER

AND NOW, this 29th day of September, 2025, upon consideration of the Report and Recommendation filed by United States Magistrate Judge Keith A. Pesto on February 12, 2025, (Docket No. 5), recommending that the § 2241 habeas petition filed by Petitioner Wilfrido Montano be denied because he failed to properly exhaust administrative remedies through the approved BOP procedures and is otherwise not entitled to the relief he claims as he is ineligible for earned time credits given that he was paroled into the United States for prosecution after being arrested in international waters for attempting to smuggle drugs into the United States and subject to an immigration detainer and final order of removal, Petitioner’s Objections which were timely filed on March 3, 2025, this matter having been recently reassigned to the undersigned for prompt disposition of the matter, and upon independent review of the record and de novo consideration of the Magistrate Judge’s February 12, 2025 Report and Recommendation, (Docket No. 5), which is ADOPTED as the opinion of this Court, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Petitioner’s Objections [6] are OVERRULED, as he failed to demonstrate that he was not required to exhaust administrative remedies and has otherwise not shown that he is entitled to earned time credits, see e.g., Pisman v. Warden Allenwood FCI Low, No. 23-2048, 2023 WL 6618238, at *1 (3d Cir. Oct. 11, 2023) (“Contrary to his argument, Pisman, a foreign citizen assigned a “deportable alien” public safety factor on whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a detainer, is ineligible to use earned time credits for immediate release

to residential re-entry programs or home confinement, pursuant to BOP regulations.”); Said v. Underwood, No. 3:23-CV-00164, 2025 WL 90145, at *2 (W.D. Pa. Jan. 14, 2025) (“the Court concludes that Petitioner is ineligible to apply earned time credits under 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(E) and will deny the Petition on that basis” as he is subject to a final order of removal); IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the § 2241 Petition (Docket No. 4) is denied, with prejudice, and no certificate of appealability shall issue, see Goodloe v. Warden Lewisburg USP, 2025 WL 342189, *1, n.1 (3d Cir. 2025) (citing Reese v. Warden Phila. FDC, 904 F.3d 244, 246 (3d Cir. 2018) (“a federal prisoner challenging the denial of a § 2241 petition, he need not obtain a certificate of appealability”); and, IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that an appropriate Judgment follows.

s/Nora Barry Fischer Nora Barry Fischer Senior U.S. District Judge cc/ecf: Magistrate Judge Keith A. Pesto cc: Wilfrido Montano, Reg. No. 50321-018 F.C.I. Loretto P.O. Box 1000 Cresson, PA 16630 (via first class mail)