Habeas Corpus Relief

    Attorney Julien A. Graystone, of counsel to the Law Offices of Sean D. Hummel, in conjunction with his co-counsel Anna T. Jacobs of Washington, D.C., had the distinct honor of obtaining habeas corpus relief on behalf of a client who was in INS detention in Virginia.  In a precedent setting decision, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that INS detained aliens who committed criminal offenses for which they had finished their incarceration, parole, or probation prior to October 9, 1998, are eligible for bond determination or redetermination and are no longer subject to mandatory detention by the INS.  Senior District Judge Cacheris examined the legal language that provides that the Attorney General (INS) must take certain convicted aliens into custody "when the alien is released."  The Court held that it would be contrary to the plain language of the law to interpret "when the alien is released" to include aliens who had already been "released" prior to the effective date of the law and who had been released prior to being taken into custody for removal proceedings.

    This decision will allow many INS detained aliens in the Eastern District of Virginia who are presently in removal (deportation) proceedings because they committed offenses for which they finished their incarceration, parole, or probation prior to October 9, 1998, to request a bond hearing before an Immigration Judge.  If the Immigration Judge finds that they qualify for a bond, they will be released.  The importance of this ruling is that, prior to the issuance of this ground breaking decision, all of these people were manditorily detained under INA Section 236(c), without any possibility of being released until a final decision was entered in their removal (deportation) case.

       Click HERE for the full text of the Memorandum Opinion and Decision.

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The Law Offices of Sean D. Hummel
1528 K Street, N.W., Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: (202) 347-1731 - Fax: (202) 347-1751
sean@hummelaw.com