Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, 39 (2001)

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716

ZADVYDAS v. DAVIS

Kennedy, J., dissenting

citizen of Laos convicted of attempted, premeditated murder); Mounsaveng v. INS, No. 00-15309 (CA9, Aug. 11, 2000), cert. pending, No. 00-751* (releasing a citizen of Laos convicted of rape of a 15-year-old girl and reckless endangerment for involvement in a fight in which gunshots were fired); Lim v. Reno, No. 99-36191 (CA9, Aug. 14, 2000), cert. pending, No. 00-777 (releasing a Cambodian convicted of rape and robbery); Phuong Phuc Le v. INS, No. 00-16095 (CA9, Sept. 18, 2000), cert. pending, No. 00-1001 (releasing a Vietnamese citizen convicted of voluntary manslaughter in a crime involving the attempted murder of two other persons). Today's result will ensure these dangerous individuals, and hundreds more like them, will remain free while the Executive Branch tries to secure their removal. By contrast, aliens who violate mere tourist visa requirements, ante, at 691, can in the typical case be held pending deportation on grounds that a minor offender is more likely to be removed. There is no reason to suppose Congress intended this odd result.

The majority's rule is not limited to aliens once lawfully admitted. Today's result may well mandate the release of those aliens who first gained entry illegally or by fraud, and, indeed, is broad enough to require even that inadmissible and excludable aliens detained at the border be set free in our community. In Rosales-Garcia v. Holland, 238 F. 3d 704, 725 (CA6 2001), for example, Rosales, a Cuban citizen, arrived in this country during the 1980 Mariel boatlift. Id., at 707. Upon arrival in the United States, Rosales was released into the custody of a relative under the Attorney General's authority to parole illegal aliens, see 8 U. S. C. § 1182(d)(5)(A), and there he committed multiple crimes for which he was convicted and imprisoned. 238 F. 3d, at 707- 708. While serving a sentence for burglary and grand larceny, Rosales escaped from prison, another of the offenses

*[Reporter's Note: See post, p. 943.]

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