Demore v. Kim, 538 U.S. 510, 2 (2003)

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Cite as: 538 U. S. 510 (2003)

Syllabus

Held:

1. Section 1226(e)—which states that "[t]he Attorney General's discretionary judgment regarding the application of this section shall not be subject to review" and that "[n]o court may set aside any action or decision by the Attorney General under this section regarding the detention or release of any alien"—does not deprive the federal courts of jurisdiction to grant habeas relief to aliens challenging their detention under § 1226(c). Respondent does not challenge a "discretionary judgment" by the Attorney General or a "decision" that the Attorney General has made regarding his detention or release. Rather, respondent challenges the statutory framework that permits his detention without bail. Where Congress intends to preclude judicial review of constitutional claims its intent to do so must be clear. E. g., Webster v. Doe, 486 U. S. 592, 603. And, where a provision precluding review is claimed to bar habeas review, the Court requires a particularly clear statement that such is Congress' intent. See INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U. S. 289, 308-309, 298, 327. Section 1226(e) contains no explicit provision barring habeas review. Pp. 516-517.

2. Congress, justifiably concerned with evidence that deportable criminal aliens who are not detained continue to engage in crime and fail to appear for their removal hearings in large numbers, may require that persons such as respondent be detained for the brief period necessary for their removal proceedings. In the exercise of its broad power over naturalization and immigration, Congress regularly makes rules that would be unacceptable if applied to citizens. Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U. S. 67, 79-80. Although the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process in deportation proceedings, Reno v. Flores, 507 U. S. 292, 306, detention during such proceedings is a constitutionally valid aspect of the process, e. g., Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U. S. 228, 235, even where, as here, aliens challenge their detention on the grounds that there has been no finding that they are unlikely to appear for their deportation proceedings, Carlson v. Landon, 342 U. S. 524, 538. The INS detention of respondent, a criminal alien who has conceded that he is deportable, for the limited period of his removal proceedings, is governed by these cases. Respondent argues unpersuasively that the § 1226(c) detention policy violates due process under Zadvydas, 533 U. S., at 699, in which the Court held that § 1231(a)(6) authorizes continued detention of an alien subject to a final removal order beyond that section's 90-day removal period for only such time as is reasonably necessary to secure the removal. Zadvydas is materially different from the present case in two respects. First, the aliens there challenging their detention following final deportation orders were ones for whom removal was "no longer practically attainable," such that their detention

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