Diop v. ICE/Homeland Security
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
656 F.3d 221 (2011)
Diop (plaintiff) was held in mandatory immigration detention under Section 236(c) -- which provides no possibility of bond -- for nearly three years while his removal case wound through repeated administrative and judicial review, with the government attributing delays to Diop's requests for continuances to retain counsel and Diop attributing them to the immigration judge's repeated legal errors requiring appeals and remands; the district court denied his habeas petition challenging the prolonged detention.
Whether Section 236(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the detention of an alien convicted of a crime for a reasonable period of time, after which the Due Process Clause demands a hearing to determine whether continued detention is necessary.