United States Court of Appeals 

For the Seventh Circuit 

Chicago, Illinois 60604 

Submitted January 27, 2021*

Decided January 28, 2021 

Before 

MICHAEL B. BRENNAN, Circuit Judge 

MICHAEL Y. SCUDDER, Circuit Judge 

AMY J. ST. EVE, Circuit Judge

No. 20-2823 

FADEEL SHUHAIBER, 

Petitioner-Appellant, 

v. 

IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS 

ENFORCEMENT, et al., 

 Respondents-Appellees.

 Appeal from the United States 

District Court for the Northern 

District of Illinois, Western Division. 

No. 20 C 50290 

Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, 

Chief Judge. 

O R D E R 

After failing to appeal his removal order to the Board of Immigration Appeals, 

Fadeel Shuhaiber, an immigration detainee, sued the immigration judge and others to 

challenge that order. The district court dismissed the petition for lack of subject-matter 

*

 The appellees were not served with process and are not participating in this 

appeal. We have agreed to decide the case without oral argument because the brief and 

record adequately present the facts and legal arguments, and oral argument would not 

significantly aid the court. FED. R. APP. P. 34(a)(2)(C). 

NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION 

To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 
No. 20-2823 Page 2 

jurisdiction because, by statute, district courts may not entertain challenges to removal 

orders. See 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(5). We affirm. 

Shuhaiber’s removal is pending. Three years after entering the United States on a 

student visa, he pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. After he served his 

sentence, the Department of Homeland Security charged him with removability for, 

among other things, being convicted of an aggravated felony and crime of moral 

turpitude. 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(B), (a)(2)(A)(iii). In 2019, an immigration judge ordered 

him removed to Palestine, Lebanon, or Israel. 

Rather than appealing the immigration judge’s initial decision to the Board of 

Immigration Appeals, Shuhaiber petitioned for review in this court. We dismissed the 

petition because he had not exhausted his administrative remedies. Shuhaiber v. Barr, 

No. 19-2960 (7th Cir. Oct. 24, 2019). Shuhaiber then persuaded the immigration court to 

reopen his case and reissue the removal order so that he could appeal it to the Board. 

He did so, only to withdraw his administrative appeal because of a family member’s 

medical crisis. 

Shuhaiber brought this suit in federal district court against the immigration 

judge, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the agency’s counsel, seeking to 

vacate the removal order and secure his release. He asserted that the immigration judge 

overstated the seriousness of his child pornography conviction—he maintains that he 

deleted the pornographic material from his computer without viewing it and never had 

contact with a minor—in deeming it an aggravated felony and crime of moral 

turpitude. But the district court, construing his filing as a petition for writ of habeas 

corpus, dismissed it for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Sharif ex rel. Sharif v. Ashcroft, 

280 F.3d 786, 787 (7th Cir. 2002). 

Shuhaiber argues on appeal that the district court must have jurisdiction over his 

petition because he has no other forum in which to bring his challenge. But as the 

district court correctly explained, Congress divested district courts of jurisdiction over 

habeas petitions challenging removal orders. See 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(5); Rivas-Melendrez v. 

Napolitano, 689 F.3d 732, 736–37 (7th Cir. 2012). To the extent Shuhaiber wishes to 

challenge the bases for the underlying removal order, his recourse was to present that 

argument to the Board of Immigration Appeals. See Padilla v. Gonzales, 470 F.3d 1209, 

1213–14 (7th Cir. 2006). By failing to do so, Shuhaiber did not exhaust his administrative 

remedies, and we therefore lack jurisdiction to review any such challenges. 8 U.S.C. 

§ 1252(d)(1); Perez-Fuentes v. Lynch, 842 F.3d 506, 511 (7th Cir. 2016). 
No. 20-2823 Page 3 

We have considered Shuhaiber’s other arguments, and they are without merit. 

AFFIRMED