Reported / Citable
Background
Audelio Rosales Walle, through counsel, filed a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. Counsel stated that an ICE locator search showed Walle was being held at the Coastal Bend Detention Center in Robstown, Texas, within Nueces County.
On August 25, 2026, however, the court reviewed ICE’s locator website and found that Walle was then detained at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas. That facility is in Cameron County, which falls within the Southern District of Texas’s Brownsville Division.
The Court’s Holding
The court explained that a § 2241 habeas petition must be filed in the district where the prisoner is incarcerated. Although Walle had filed within the Southern District of Texas, the court concluded that the Brownsville Division was the more appropriate division because that was where he was currently confined.
Rather than dismiss the petition, the court ordered the clerk to transfer the case to the Southern District of Texas, Brownsville Division. It also denied all pending motions as moot and directed the clerk to close the Corpus Christi Division case.
Key Takeaways
- A § 2241 habeas petition must be brought where the petitioner is incarcerated.
- The petitioner’s current detention location supported transfer from the Corpus Christi Division to the Brownsville Division.
- The court transferred the case instead of dismissing it, denied pending motions as moot, and closed the original case.
Why It Matters
The order illustrates how a detainee’s current place of confinement can determine where a federal habeas petition proceeds, even when the original filing was made elsewhere within the same judicial district. It also shows that transfer may preserve the petition while moving it to the proper division.