Opinion
Civil Action No. 04-2578.
September 30, 2004
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION
Presently before the Court is the pro se Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus filed by the Petitioner, Mamadou Cisse ("Petitioner"), pursuant to 28 U.S.C. section 2254, and a Response from Respondents' counsel advising that Petitioner was released from custody on July 9, 2004. Petitioner was incarcerated in the Berks County State Correctional Institution at the time he filed his Petition. For the reasons that follow, it is recommended that the Petition should be denied as moot.
DISCUSSION
This information is taken from the filed pleadings and records attached to those pleadings.
Petitioner, a native and citizen of the Ivory Coast, entered the United States on a tourist visa on June 1, 1988. In 1996, Petitioner's wife applied to adjust Petitioner's status to permanent alien. On April 5, 2001, Petitioner pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He was committed to the custody of the state Bureau of Prisons on June 1, 2001. On January 26, 2003, Petitioner completed his criminal sentence, and he was transferred to the custody of BICE/INS. Petitioner was ordered deported to the Ivory Coast by an Immigration Judge ("IJ") on July 21, 2003, and Petitioner appealed the IJ's decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA"). Petitioner withdrew his BIA appeal on November 5, 2003, and his removal order became administratively final on that date.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") was incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003, and INS responsibilities are now divided among the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("BICE"), the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. The BICE is responsible for carrying out deportation.
Petitioner filed the instant pro se Petition on June 14, 2004, claiming that his period of detention under the post-removal-period provision of the IIRIRA exceeded the allowable period of time. Respondents filed their Response on September 24, 2004, advising that Petitioner was released from detention on July 9, 2004 on an Order of Supervision. The only issue raised in the Petition was Petitioner's ongoing detention by the BICE during his removal proceedings. This Petition should therefore be denied as moot because Petitioner was released from detention on July 9, 2004 to the supervision of the BICE pending deportation.
Therefore, I make the following:
RECOMMENDATION
AND NOW, this ____ day of September, 2004, IT IS RESPECTFULLY RECOMMENDED that the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus should be DENIED as moot due to Petitioner's release from detention on July 9, 2004 to the supervision of the BICE pending deportation. It is also RESPECTFULLY RECOMMENDED that the Order staying Petitioner's deportation pending decision on the instant Petition should be VACATED, and the BICE should be directed to complete Petitioner's deportation as soon as possible.