Zaya v. Adducci

District Court, E.D. Michigan·Decided April 30, 2020·No. 5:20-cv-10921·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION

Fawzi Zaya, Petitioner, Case No. 20-10921 v. Judith E. Levy Rebecca Adducci, et al., United States District Judge

Mag. Judge Anthony P. Patti Respondents.

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OPINION AND ORDER EXTENDING TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER [9]

On April 18, 2020, the Court issued an order granting a temporary restraining order and requiring Petitioner Fawzi Zaya’s immediate release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Custody. (ECF No. 9.) The TRO is set to expire on April 30, 2020, at 6:30pm EST. (Id. at PageID.679.) The Court ordered Respondent Adducci1 to show

1 Petitioner initially named as Respondents: Rebecca Adducci, the Detroit District Director of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Matthew Albence, Deputy Director of ICE; Kevin McAleenan, Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security; and William Barr, Attorney General of the United States. In its April 18, 2020 Order, the Court found that it had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. (ECF No. 9, PageID.665.) Only Respondent Adducci is a proper respondent for Petitioner’s petition for habeas corpus. (Id.) cause why the TRO should not be converted to a preliminary injunction. (Id.) On April 23, 2020, Respondent filed a response to the Court’s order

to show cause. (ECF No. 10.) On April 19, 2020, Petitioner filed his reply.2 (ECF No. 11.) The Court now extends the TRO by fourteen days, during

which time Respondent must show cause as to whether certain additional precautionary measures are feasible and in place. I. Factual Background

Petitioner Fawzi Zaya is a forty-two-year-old citizen of Iraq. (ECF No. 7-1, PageID.509.) He has lived in the United States since March 1982. (ECF No. 1, PageID.21.) On December 19, 1997, Petitioner was convicted

of Delivery over 50 Grams of Cocaine. (ECF No. 7-1, PageID.509.) Petitioner has also been convicted of domestic violence. (ECF No. 10, PageID.684.) On January 17, 2008, Petitioner was convicted of Second-

Degree Murder. (ECF No. 7-1, PageID.509.) Upon Petitioner’s parole from the Michigan Department of Corrections, ICE took him into custody

2 Despite having six days in which to prepare a reply to Respondent’s well- drafted and thorough twenty-seven-page response and accompanying exhibits, Petitioner filed a three-and-a-half-page reply in which he cites no legal authority. (ECF No. 11.) Given the significance of the issues presented by this case and the seriousness of Petitioner’s constitutional claims, particularly as they relate to the high risk to Petitioner’s health and life, the Court did not find this reply helpful to its consideration of his claims. pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(2). (Id.) Petitioner has been detained at the Calhoun County Correctional Facility (CCCF) since March 24, 2020.

(Id.) Petitioner has a number of serious health conditions which place

him at increased risk of serious complication or death from a COVID-19 infection. Petitioner is obese. (ECF No. 10, PageID.685.) He suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and neurological problems. (ECF

No. 2-2, PageID.247.) He also suffers from neural foraminal stenosis, a kind of spinal stenosis requiring the use of a wheelchair and a TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) unit. (Id.) Petitioner also

has gout. (Id.) Respondent alleges that Petitioner has exaggerated his health conditions. (ECF No. 10, PageID.685.) But Respondent does not contest that Petitioner is obese and suffers from high blood pressure,

diabetes, and asthma, each of which places him at heightened risk of severe illness and/or death from COVID-19. (Id.) On April 13, 2020, Petitioner filed both a Petition for Writ of Habeas

Corpus (ECF No. 1) and an Emergency Motion for Temporary Restraining Order (ECF No. 2.) The case was assigned to the Honorable Bernard A. Friedman. On April 13, 2020, the undersigned accepted reassignment of this case as a companion to Case No. 20-10829, Malam v. Adducci. Both cases involve Petitioners with serious underlying health

conditions challenging on Fifth Amendment grounds their continued confinement at the Calhoun County Correctional Facility in light of the

risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Court granted Petitioner’s motion on April 18, 2020. (ECF No. 9.) Because the Court finds that combined with the current increased

precautions, some additional measures may be sufficient to rebut the necessity of a preliminary injunction, the Court now extends its temporary restraining order by fourteen days to allow Respondent to

show cause as to the feasibility and implementation of such precautions. II. Legal Standard In determining whether to grant a preliminary injunction, courts

evaluate four factors: 1) whether the movant has a strong likelihood of success on the merits; 2) whether the movant would suffer irreparable injury absent an injunction; 3) whether granting the injunction would

cause substantial harm to others; and 4) whether the public interest would be served by granting the injunction. Northeast Ohio Coal. For Homeless and Serv. Emps. Intern. Union, Local 1199 v. Blackwell, 467 F.3d 999, 1009 (6th Cir. 2006). These four factors “are not prerequisites that must be met but are interrelated considerations that must be

balanced together. For example, the probability of success that must be demonstrated is inversely proportional to the amount of irreparable

injury the movants will suffer absent the stay.” Id. (internal quotations omitted). “[P]reliminary injunctions are extraordinary and drastic remedies [] never awarded as of right.” Am. Civil Liberties Union Fund

of Michigan v. Livingston Cty., 796 F.3d 636, 642 (6th Cir. 2015). In the alternative, a court may extend a temporary restraining order for good cause. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(b)(2) provides

that a temporary restraining order “expires at the time after entry—not to exceed 14 days—that the court sets, unless before that time the court, for good cause, extends it for a like period or the adverse party consents

to a longer extension. The reasons for an extension must be entered in the record.” Accordingly, if the Court finds good cause, it may extend the temporary restraining order for up to fourteen days.

The Court finds that determining the feasibility of additional precautionary measures and allowing Respondent to implement them constitutes good cause for extending the temporary restraining order. III. Analysis The Court granted emergency injunctive relief because, based on

the Court’s initial review of the record, Petitioner had shown: a high likelihood of irreparable injury absent an injunction, both in the form of

substantial risk to his health and life from COVID-19 and due to his alleged constitutional violations (ECF No. 9, PageID.668–673); a strong likelihood of success on the merits with respect to both the objective and

subjective components of a deliberate indifference claim (Id. at PageID.673–676); and that the balance of equities and public interest favored his immediate release (Id. at PageID.676–678). Specifically, the

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