Santiago Alvarez v. Eric Holder

454 F. App'x 769
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedDecember 14, 2011
Docket10-13907, 10-14056
StatusUnpublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 454 F. App'x 769 (Santiago Alvarez v. Eric Holder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Santiago Alvarez v. Eric Holder, 454 F. App'x 769 (11th Cir. 2011).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

The Attorney General appeals an order of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, retroactively granting Santiago Alvarez’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. The Attorney General first argues the habeas corpus petition became moot when Alvarez was released from detention, and that therefore the district court did not have jurisdiction to act. Alternatively, the Attorney General argues that the district court erred in striking several conditions of Alvarez’s release. Alvarez cross-appeals the district court’s decision to reinstate one of the conditions after previously striking it.

I. Background

Alvarez is a native citizen of Cuba who has been living in the United States as a lawful permanent resident since 1959. 1 He is under a final order of removal on the basis of several criminal convictions. 2 After being held in ICE custody for over six months, Alvarez filed a petition for a 28 U.S.C. § 2241 writ of habeas corpus, asserting that his detention was no longer “presumptively reasonable” under Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, 701, 121 S.Ct. 2491, 150 L.Ed.2d 653 (2001). A hearing *772 on Alvarez’s § 2241 petition was set for October 26, 2009.

Alvarez was released from ICE custody on October 21, 2009, five days before his hearing date. On October 22, 2009, the Attorney General filed a Motion to Dismiss Alvarez’s § 2241 petition arguing that, because Alvarez had been released, his petition was now moot. Attached to the government’s motion was the Order of Supervision (“OSUP”), which provided that Alvarez be “placed under supervision and permitted to be at large,” subject to certain conditions, including:

[Condition 3]: That you do not travel beyond 50 miles of your residence without the advanced, written permission from ICE. Included in any request for travel must be information about the dates, purposes, places and manner of such proposed travel.
[Condition 11]: That you do not have any verbal, written, or physical contact or association, direct or indirect, except as permitted by court order, with Luis Posada-Carriles, Ernesto Abreu, Osvaldo Mitat, Ruben Lopez-Castro, Jose Pujol, Gilberto Abascal, Generoso Bringas, Edwardo Coloma, Pedro Lopez, Sixto Reinaldo Aquit, and Orlando (“Landy”) Gonzalez.
[Condition 17]: That you will make good faith and timely efforts to obtain a travel document to effectuate your removal from the United States and will comply with any request by ICE to assist with these efforts.
[Condition 20]: At any time, ICE may modify certain terms and conditions of the order of supervision based on changed circumstances.

Alvarez filed a Response to Respondent’s Motion to Dismiss arguing that his “sudden and unexpected” conditional release just five days before his habeas hearing did not render his petition moot. He also challenged the above conditions of release. In an order dated October 30, 3009, the district court granted Alvarez’s habeas petition, “retroactively to October 21, 2009,” and also struck the above conditions of release on the basis that the conditions constituted unconstitutional “constructive detention.” In an order dated November 9, 2009, the district court reinstated Condition 11, finding that the government’s arguments for the no-contact provision were appropriate in the circumstances.

II. Discussion

This Court reviews de novo a district court’s grant of habeas relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. See Cook v. Wiley, 208 F.3d 1314, 1317 (11th Cir.2000).

a. Jurisdiction over habeas claims

Initially, we reject the government’s argument that the district court’ lacked jurisdiction to hear the constitutional arguments related to Alvarez’s conditions of release. An individual may seek habeas relief under § 2241 if he is “in custody” under federal authority, and the Supreme Court has found that the in custody requirement is satisfied where restrictions are placed on a petitioner’s freedom of action or movement. See, e.g., Jones v. Cunningham, 371 U.S. 236, 83 S.Ct. 373, 9 L.Ed.2d 285 (1963) (parolee still “in custody” of the parole board because the parole order imposed conditions that “significantly confine[d] and restrain[ed] his freedom”; habeas relief may be sought); see also, Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U.S. 1, 7, 118 S.Ct. 978, 140 L.Ed.2d 43 (1998) (incarcerated parolee’s challenge to the validity of his conviction can be main- *773 tamed if a ‘collateral consequence’ of the conviction still exists).

In Dawson v. Scott, 50 F.3d 884, 886 n. 2 (11th Cir.1995), we found that a § 2241 petition filed by a prisoner while in custody was not mooted by his subsequent release because he was “still serving his term of supervised release” which “involves some restrictions upon his liberty.” Because the OSUP amounted to a “collateral consequence” of Alvarez’s release that was not moot, we find that the district court had jurisdiction to rule on his § 2241 petition.

b. Challenge to the individual release conditions

With reference to the conditions of release, the Supreme Court explained in Zadvydas that, if removal is not reasonably foreseeable, “the alien’s release may and should be conditioned on any of the various forms of supervised release that are appropriate in the circumstances ....” 533 U.S. at 699-700, 121 S.Ct. 2491 (emphasis added). Here, we find that the conditions of release imposed by ICE were appropriate in the circumstances. Conditions 3 and 17 are expressly authorized by administrative regulation 8 C.F.R. § 241.5. The regulation provides, in relevant part, that an Order of Supervision “shall specify conditions of supervision” (emphasis added) including, “[a] requirement that the alien continue efforts to obtain a travel document and assist the Service in obtaining a travel document” (Condition 17) and “[a] requirement that the alien obtain advance approval of travel beyond previously specified times and distances” (Condition 3).

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454 F. App'x 769, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/santiago-alvarez-v-eric-holder-ca11-2011.