Reported / Citable
Background
Audelio Rosales Walle, through counsel, filed a petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. Counsel alleged that he was detained at the Coastal Bend Detention Center in Robstown, Texas, when the petition was filed.
On the date of its order, however, the court reviewed ICE’s detainee locator and found that Rosales Walle was being held at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas, in Cameron County. Cameron County lies within the Southern District of Texas’s Brownsville Division.
The Court’s Holding
Magistrate Judge Jason B. Libby held that a Section 2241 habeas petition must be filed in the district where the prisoner is incarcerated. Although Rosales Walle filed in the Southern District of Texas, the court concluded that the Brownsville Division was the appropriate division because that was where he was then detained.
The court ordered the clerk to transfer the action to the Southern District of Texas, Brownsville Division, rather than dismiss it. It denied all pending motions as moot and directed the clerk to close the transferred case.
Key Takeaways
- A Section 2241 petition must be brought where the petitioner is incarcerated.
- The court relied on the petitioner’s current detention location in determining the appropriate division.
- Transfer, rather than dismissal, preserved the habeas action.
Why It Matters
The order illustrates the jurisdictional importance of a habeas petitioner’s place of confinement. In immigration-detention cases, a change or correction in the detainee’s location can require transfer to the division encompassing the current facility.