WILLIAN RAUDA V. DAVID JENNINGS

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedDecember 12, 2022
Docket21-16062
StatusPublished

This text of WILLIAN RAUDA V. DAVID JENNINGS (WILLIAN RAUDA V. DAVID JENNINGS) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
WILLIAN RAUDA V. DAVID JENNINGS, (9th Cir. 2022).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

WILLIAN MATIAS RAUDA, No. 21-16062

Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 3:21- cv-03897-CRB v.

DAVID JENNINGS, in his official ORDER AND capacity, Field Office Director of AMENDED San Francisco Field Office, U.S. OPINION Immigration and Customs Enforcement; TAE D. JOHNSON, Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General; ALEJANDRO N. MAYORKAS, Acting Secretary of Department of Homeland Security,

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Charles R. Breyer, District Judge, Presiding 2 MATIAS RAUDA V. JENNINGS

Submitted to Motions Panel July 13, 2021 *

Filed August 13, 2021 Amended December 12, 2022

Before: Johnnie B. Rawlinson, Consuelo M. Callahan, and Lawrence VanDyke, Circuit Judges.

Order; Opinion by Judge VanDyke

SUMMARY **

Immigration / Habeas Corpus

The panel filed: 1) an order amending the opinion filed August 13, 2021; and 2) an amended opinion affirming the district court’s denial of Willian Matias Rauda’s request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent the government from removing him. In the amended opinion, the panel: (1) concluded that the district court correctly determined that it lacked jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g); (2) concluded that neither the Suspension Clause nor the Due Process Clause preserve judicial review; and (3) directed the district court to dismiss

* The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).

** This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. MATIAS RAUDA V. JENNINGS 3

Matias’s petition. In 2018, Matias, a native of El Salvador, was detained by immigration authorities. An immigration judge (IJ) denied bond, and an IJ later denied him relief under the Convention Against Torture and ordered his removal. The Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed his appeal, and this court denied his petition for review. In April 2021, Matias moved the BIA to reopen, and the BIA denied a stay of removal. In May 2021, Matias filed a habeas petition with the district court, which denied his motion to enjoin his removal until his motion to reopen and habeas petition were decided. On June 14, 2021, the district court denied Matias’s subsequently-filed motion for a TRO, and the government voluntarily agreed to stay removal up to and including August 13, 2021. The panel concluded that the district court correctly determined that jurisdiction was barred by 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g), which provides that “no court shall have jurisdiction to hear any cause or claim by or on behalf of any alien arising from the decision or action by the Attorney General to commence proceedings, adjudicate cases, or execute removal orders against any alien.” The panel explained that the execution of his removal order was precisely what Matias challenged here, and that Congress could have chosen to provide petitioners like Matias with access to judicial review of non-final immigration orders, but did not do so. The panel explained that the conclusion that it lacked jurisdiction was reinforced by the consideration that, as explained in Shaboyan v. Holder, 652 F.3d 988 (9th Cir. 2011), this court may only review final orders, and the BIA’s interim order denying a stay of removal pending resolution 4 MATIAS RAUDA V. JENNINGS

of a motion to reopen is not such an order. Noting that Shaboyan involved a petition for review, while this case involved a habeas petition, the panel explained that Shaboyan foreclosed review (direct or indirect) of the BIA’s denial of his stay request. The panel rejected Matias’s claim that the Constitution’s Suspension Clause preserves judicial review here. The panel relied on DHS v. Thuraissigiam, 140 S. Ct. 1959 (2020), in which the Supreme Court determined that habeas relief applies to petitioners seeking release from executive detention, not to those seeking to remain in the United States. Because Matias was not seeking a remedy for unlawful detention, the panel concluded that only an extreme and unwarranted expansion of the habeas writ would encompass his requested relief. The panel also rejected Matias’s argument that § 1252(g) violates due process by denying review of his claims. The panel explained that § 1252(g) does not immunize his claims from review—it merely prevents him from filing a habeas petition challenging the discretion to execute a valid order of removal while his motion to reopen is pending. Instead, he must wait to raise his claims in a petition for review of a final order. Noting that an alien is entitled to file a motion to reopen and seek a stay of removal from the agency until that motion is decided, the panel explained that this court lacks jurisdiction to intervene if the stay is denied precisely because an alien’s presence in the United States is not required for adjudication of the motion to reopen. The panel concluded that this statutorily provided process satisfies any demands of the Due Process Clause when an alien subject to a valid, final order of removal seeks to reopen his removal proceedings. MATIAS RAUDA V. JENNINGS 5

Addressing Matias’s request that the court grant him a stay because he would be severely harmed or killed if removed to El Salvador, the panel explained that, if a court could inject itself into the agency’s process and force (another) stay because a removable alien newly represented that he would be severely injured or die when removed, all similarly situated petitioners would be incentivized to demand a stay. The panel explained that, if that were case, it seems foreseeable that this would become the new norm and courts would essentially grant automatic stays of removal pending the BIA’s consideration of motions to reopen.

COUNSEL

Sean L. McMahon and Etan Z. Newman, Pangea Legal Services, San Francisco, California; Francisco M. Ugarte and Genna E. Beier, Attorneys, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, San Francisco, California; Lee P. Gelernt, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, New York, New York; for Plaintiff-Appellant. Mary L. Larakers, Trial Attorney, Civil Division/Office of Immigration Litigation, United States Department of Justice,Washington, D.C., for Defendants-Appellees. Ethan D. Dettmer, Eli M. Lazarus, Sean Howell, and Ryan Azad, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, San Francisco, California; Joshua S. Lipshutz, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Washington, D.C., for Amici Curiae Scholars of Immigration Law. 6 MATIAS RAUDA V. JENNINGS

Kristin Macleod-Ball and Trina A. Realmuto, National Immigration Litigation Alliance, Brookline, Massachusetts; Lindsay Nash, Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic, New York, New York; for Amici Curiae National Immigration Litigation Alliance and Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

ORDER

The opinion filed on August 13, 2021, and published at 8 F.4th 1050, is hereby amended by the opinion filed concurrently with this order. With this amended opinion, the panel has voted to deny the petition for rehearing en banc. The full court has been advised of the petition for rehearing en banc. A judge requested a vote on whether to rehear this case en banc, but later withdrew that request. Fed. R. App. P.

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Related

Immigration & Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr
533 U.S. 289 (Supreme Court, 2001)
Nken v. Holder
556 U.S. 418 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Shaboyan v. Holder
652 F.3d 988 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
Usama Hamama v. Rebecca Adducci
912 F.3d 869 (Sixth Circuit, 2018)
Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam
591 U.S. 103 (Supreme Court, 2020)

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