Cabrera Penaloza v. Secretary of Homeland Security

Background

Mario Cabrera Penaloza filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 challenging his continued detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while removal proceedings were pending. He sought release from detention. The court had received a report and recommendation from United States Magistrate Judge Leo I. Brisbois, and no party objected to it.

After that report and recommendation was issued, the government filed information showing that the Board of Immigration Appeals had denied Cabrera’s administrative appeal on October 26, 2018, and that immigration officials had carried out his final removal order and removed him to Mexico on November 7, 2018.

Mootness analysis

The court explained that federal courts may decide only ongoing cases or controversies. A case becomes moot when changed circumstances mean that the court can no longer provide effective relief. Because Cabrera was no longer in ICE detention, the court could not order his release, and the petition therefore no longer presented an ongoing controversy.

The court considered four possible exceptions to mootness: continuing collateral injuries, a wrong capable of repetition yet evading review, voluntary cessation of allegedly unlawful conduct, and a properly certified class action. It found that none applied. The court stated that any continuing injury would result from the final removal order rather than the detention, that there was no evidence Cabrera was reasonably expected to return to ICE detention, that the government could not simply restart the detention because Cabrera was no longer within its control, and that the case was not a class action.

Ruling

Judge Eric C. Tostrud declined to accept the report and recommendation because the case had become moot. The court denied the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus as moot and dismissed the action without prejudice for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The order directed that judgment be entered accordingly.