Unreported / Non-Citable
Background
Marely Scartett Recinos Ramirez, proceeding pro se, filed a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in the Dallas Division of the Northern District of Texas. She was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas, when she filed the petition, and she paid the filing fee.
Although Dallas and Anson are both within the Northern District of Texas, Anson is in Jones County and therefore lies within the district’s Abilene Division. District Judge Ed Kinkeade referred the matter to Magistrate Judge David L. Horan for pretrial management.
The Court’s Holding
The court held that venue was improper in the Dallas Division. Under the immediate-custodian rule governing challenges to present physical confinement, a § 2241 petition generally must be heard where the petitioner is confined, and the proper respondent is the petitioner’s immediate custodian rather than a supervisory official exercising legal control.
Because Recinos Ramirez was detained at an ICE facility in Jones County when she filed the petition, the court ordered the case immediately transferred to the Abilene Division under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1406(a) and 1631. The court also explained that it could raise venue sua sponte and that a magistrate judge could order an intra-district transfer as a nondispositive matter. The order did not resolve the merits of the habeas claims.
Key Takeaways
- A § 2241 challenge to present physical confinement generally belongs in the district or division where the petitioner was confined when the case was filed.
- The immediate custodian, rather than a remote supervisory official, is ordinarily the proper respondent in a physical-custody habeas proceeding.
- A magistrate judge may sua sponte transfer a habeas case to the proper division as a nondispositive pretrial matter.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores that immigration detainees filing § 2241 petitions must account for both the location of confinement and the identity of the immediate custodian. Filing elsewhere within the same judicial district may still result in transfer to the division encompassing the detention facility.
The order is procedural only: it determines where the habeas petition will proceed, not whether Recinos Ramirez is entitled to release or other relief.