Opinion
02-C-3357
March 3, 2003
OPINION
This is a petition for habeas corpus by one in INS custody. Vadim Kazarov is a Georgian who has been in custody for over one year. He had been a lawful permanent resident of this country, but he began using heroin and was subsequently thrice convicted of the prototypical addict crime of retail theft. INS took him into custody from the Illinois Department of Corrections where he was serving his state sentence. He now wants bond. He has had a hearing on this issue before an immigration judge (although he had to wait more than six months to get it). The hearing on his removal has presumably occurred and, since Congressional action mandates his removal, I assume removal has been or shortly will be ordered.
Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001), offers little comfort to Kazarov because it dealt with detention after removal is ordered and permits detention for as long as six months after removal (perhaps even longer) if the deportee has a reasonable probability of being repatriated. There is no claim here that Georgia is unwilling to take back deportees so I do not have to face the issue (presented in Zadvydas) of the person who has little or no chance of repatriation and for whom detention may well mean many years or life in prison. Rather, this petition falls squarely within the ambit of Parra v. Perryman, 172 F.3d 954 (7th Cir. 1999), and as such is denied. See also Yanez v. Holder, 149 F. Supp.2d 485 (N.D.Ill. 2001). There may or may not be a somewhat better claim for relief from post-removal order detention, but that is not the question before me. The pre-order detention is mandated by Congress, and the attack on that law has failed in this Circuit.
Kazarov's Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus and other relief is DENIED in its entirety.