Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/16-1363.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 07:07:15+00:00

Document:
NIELSEN, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY, ET AL. v. PREAP ET AL.
Federal immigration law empowers the Secretary of Homeland Security to arrest and hold a deportable alien pending a removal decision, and generally gives the Secretary the discretion either to detain the alien or to release him on bond or parole. 8 U. S. C. §1226(a). Another provision, §1226(c)--enacted out of "concer[n] that deportable criminal aliens who are not detained continue to engage in crime and fail to appear for their removal hearings," Demore v. Kim, 538 U. S. 510, 513--sets out four categories of aliens who are inadmissible or deportable for bearing certain links to terrorism or for committing specified crimes. Section 1226(c)(1) directs the Secretary to arrest any such criminal alien "when the alien is released" from jail, and §1226(c)(2) forbids the Secretary to release any "alien described in paragraph (1)" pending a determination on removal (with one exception not relevant here).
Respondents, two classes of aliens detained under §1226(c)(2), allege that because they were not immediately detained by immigration officials after their release from criminal custody, they are not aliens "described in paragraph (1)," even though all of them fall into at least one of the four categories covered by §§1226(c)(1)(A)-(D). Because the Government must rely on §1226(a) for their detention, respondents argue, they are entitled to bond hearings to determine if they should be released pending a decision on their status. The District Courts ruled for respondents, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed.
Held: The judgments are reversed, and the cases are remanded.
831 F. 3d 1193 and 667 Fed. Appx. 966, reversed and remanded.
(a) The statute's text does not support the argument that because respondents were not arrested immediately after their release, they are not "described in" §1226(c)(1). Since an adverb cannot modify a noun, §1226(c)(1)'s adverbial clause "when . . . released" does not modify the noun "alien," which is modified instead by the adjectival clauses appearing in subparagraphs (A)-(D). Respondents contend that an adverb can "describe" a person even though it cannot modify the noun used to denote that person, but this Court's interpretation is not dependent on a rule of grammar. The grammar merely complements what is conclusive here: the meaning of "described" as it appears in §1226(c)(2)--namely, "to communicate verbally . . . an account of salient identifying features," Webster's Third New International Dictionary 610. That is the relevant definition since the indisputable job of the "descri[ption] in paragraph (1)" is to "identif[y]" for the Secretary which aliens she must arrest immediately "when [they are] released." Yet the "when . . . released" clause could not possibly describe aliens in that sense. If it did, the directive given to the Secretary in §1226(c)(1) would be incoherent. Moreover, Congress's use of the definite article in "when the alien is released" indicates that the scope of the word "alien" "has been previously specified in context." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 1294. For that noun to have been previously specified, its scope must have been settled by the time the "when . . . released" clause appears at the end of paragraph (1). Thus, the class of people to whom "the alien" refers must be fixed by the predicate offenses identified in subparagraphs (A)-(D). Pp. 10-14.
(b) Even assuming that §1226(c)(1) requires immediate arrest, the result below would be wrong, because a statutory rule that officials " 'shall' act within a specified time" does not by itself "preclud[e] action later," Barnhart v. Peabody Coal Co., 537 U. S. 149, 158. This principle for interpreting time limits on statutory mandates was a fixture of the legal backdrop when Congress enacted §1226(c). Cf. Woodford v. Garceau, 538 U. S. 202, 209. Pp. 17-20.
Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Gorsuch, concluded that three statutory provisions--8 U. S. C. §§1252(b)(9), 1226(e), and 1252(f)(1)--limit judicial review in these cases and it is unlikely that the District Courts had Article III jurisdiction to certify the classes. Pp. 1-6.
Alito, J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, III-A, III-B-1, and IV, in which Roberts, C. J., and Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, JJ., joined, and an opinion with respect to Parts II and III-B-2, in which Roberts, C. J., and Kavanaugh, J., joined. Kavanaugh, J., filed a concurring opinion. Thomas, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which Gorsuch, J., joined. Breyer, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan, JJ., joined.
SECURITY, et al., PETITIONERS v.
BRYAN WILCOX, ACTING FIELD OFFICE DIRECTOR, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT, et al., PETITIONERS v. BASSAM YUSUF KHOURY, et al.
Justice Alito announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, III-A, III-B-1, and IV, and an opinion with respect to Parts II and III-B-2, in which The Chief Justice and Justice Kavanaugh join.
In these cases, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that this mandatory-detention requirement applies only if a covered alien is arrested by immigration officials as soon as he is released from jail. If the alien evades arrest for some short period of time--according to respondents, even 24 hours is too long--the mandatory-detention requirement is inapplicable, and the alien must have an opportunity to apply for release on bond or parole. Four other Circuits have rejected this interpretation of the statute, and we agree that the Ninth Circuit's interpretation is wrong. We therefore reverse the judgments below and remand for further proceedings.
The first provision, §1226(a),1 applies to most such aliens, and it sets out the general rule regarding their arrest and detention pending a decision on removal. Section 1226(a) contains two sentences, one dealing with taking an alien into custody and one dealing with detention. The first sentence empowers the Secretary of Homeland Security2 to arrest and hold an alien "pending a decision on whether the alien is to be removed from the United States." The second sentence generally gives the Secretary the discretion either to detain the alien or to release him on bond or parole. If the alien is detained, he may seek review of his detention by an officer at the Department of Homeland Security and then by an immigration judge (both exercising power delegated by the Secretary), see 8 CFR §§236.1(c)(8) and (d)(1), 1003.19, 1236.1(d)(1) (2018); and the alien may secure his release if he can convince the officer or immigration judge that he poses no flight risk and no danger to the community. See §§1003.19(a), 1236.1(d); Matter of Guerra, 24 I. & N. Dec. 37 (BIA 2006). But while 8 U. S. C. §1226(a) generally permits an alien to seek release in this way, that provision's sentence on release states that all this is subject to an exception that is set out in §1226(c).
Section 1226(c) consists of two paragraphs, one on the decision to take an alien into "[c]ustody" and another on the alien's subsequent "[r]elease."3 The first paragraph (on custody) sets out four categories of covered aliens, namely, those who are inadmissible or deportable on specified grounds. It then provides that the Secretary must take any alien falling into one of these categories "into custody" "when the alien is released" from criminal custody.
The categories of predicates for mandatory detention identified in subparagraphs (A)-(D) generally involve the commission of crimes. As will become relevant to our analysis, however, some who satisfy subparagraph (D)--e.g., close relatives of terrorists and those who are thought likely to engage in terrorist activity, see 8 U. S. C. §1182(a)(3)(B)(i)(IX)--may never have been charged with any crime in this country.4 Still, since the vast majority of mandatory-detention cases do involve convictions, we follow the heading of subsection (c), as well as our cases and the courts below, in referring to aliens who satisfy subparagraphs (A)-(D) collectively as "criminal aliens."
Respondents in the two cases before us are aliens who were detained under §1226(c)(2)'s mandatory-detention requirement--and thus denied a bond hearing--pending a decision on their removal. See Preap v. Johnson, 831 F. 3d 1193 (CA9 2016); Khoury v. Asher, 667 Fed. Appx. 966 (CA9 2016). Though all respondents had been convicted of criminal offenses covered in §§1226(c)(1)(A)-(D), none were arrested by immigration officials immediately after their release from criminal custody. Indeed, some were not arrested until several years later.
Although the named plaintiffs in Preap were not taken into custody on immigration grounds until years after their release from criminal custody, the District Court certified a broad class comprising all aliens in California " 'who are or will be subjected to mandatory detention under 8 U. S. C. section 1226(c) and who were not or will not have been taken into custody by the government immediately upon their release from criminal custody for a [s]ection 1226(c)(1) offense.' " 831 F. 3d, at 1198 (emphasis added). The District Court granted a preliminary injunction against the mandatory detention of the members of this class, holding that criminal aliens are exempt from mandatory detention under §1226(c) (and are thus entitled to a bond hearing) unless they are arrested " 'when [they are] released,' and no later." Preap v. Johnson, 303 F. R. D. 566, 577 (ND Cal. 2014) (quoting 8 U. S. C. §1226(c)(1)). The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed.
Did the Preap court overstep this limit by granting injunctive relief for a class of aliens that includes some who have not yet faced--but merely "will face"--mandatory detention? The District Court said no, but we need not decide. Whether the Preap court had jurisdiction to enter such an injunction is irrelevant because the District Court had jurisdiction to entertain the plaintiffs' request for declaratory relief, and for independent reasons given below, we are ordering the dissolution of the injunction that the District Court ordered.
Respondents argue that they are not subject to mandatory detention because they are not "described in" §1226(c)(1), even though they (and all the other members of the classes they represent) fall into at least one of the categories of aliens covered by subparagraphs (A)-(D) of that provision. An alien covered by these subparagraphs is not "described in" §1226(c)(1), respondents contend, unless the alien was also arrested "when [he or she was] released" from criminal custody. Indeed, respondents insist that the alien must have been arrested immediately after release. Since they and the other class members were not arrested immediately, respondents conclude, they are not "described in" §1226(c)(1). So to detain them, the Government must rely not on §1226(c) but on the general provisions of §1226(a). And thus, like others detained under §1226(a), they are owed bond hearings in which they can earn their release by proving that they pose no flight risk and no danger to others--or so they claim. But neither the statute's text nor its structure supports this argument. In fact, both cut the other way.
Respondents and the dissent contend that this grammatical point is not the end of the matter--that an adverb can "describe" a person even though it cannot modify the noun used to denote that person. See post, at 5-6 (opinion of Breyer, J.). But our interpretation is not dependent on a rule of grammar. The preliminary point about grammar merely complements what is critical, and indeed conclusive in these cases: the particular meaning of the term "described" as it appears in §1226(c)(2). As we noted in Luna Torres v. Lynch, 578 U. S. ___, ___ (2016) (slip op., at 6), the term " 'describe' takes on different meanings in different contexts." A leading definition of the term is "to communicate verbally . . . an account of salient identifying features," Webster's Third New International Dictionary 610 (1976), and that is clearly the meaning of the term used in the phrase "an alien described in paragraph (1)." (Emphasis added.) This is clear from the fact that the indisputable job of the "descri[ption] in paragraph (1)" is to "identif[y]" for the Secretary--to list the "salient . . . features" by which she can pick out--which aliens she must arrest immediately "when [they are] released."
And here is the crucial point: The "when . . . released" clause could not possibly describe aliens in that sense; it plays no role in identifying for the Secretary which aliens she must immediately arrest. If it did, the directive in §1226(c)(1) would be nonsense. It would be ridiculous to read paragraph (1) as saying: "The Secretary must arrest, upon their release from jail, a particular subset of criminal aliens. Which ones? Only those who are arrested upon their release from jail." Since it is the Secretary's action that determines who is arrested upon release, "being arrested upon release" cannot be one of her criteria in figuring out whom to arrest. So it cannot "describe"--it cannot give the Secretary an "identifying featur[e]" of--the relevant class of aliens. On any other reading of paragraph (1), the command that paragraph (1) gives the Secretary would be downright incoherent.
Our reading is confirmed by Congress's use of the definite article in "when the alien is released." Because "[w]ords are to be given the meaning that proper grammar and usage would assign them," A. Scalia & B. Garner, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts 140 (2012), the "rules of grammar govern" statutory interpretation "unless they contradict legislative intent or purpose," ibid. (citing Costello v. INS, 376 U. S. 120, 122-126 (1964)). Here grammar and usage establish that "the" is "a function word . . . indicat[ing] that a following noun or noun equivalent is definite or has been previously specified by context." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 1294 (11th ed. 2005). See also Work v. United States ex rel. McAlester-Edwards Co., 262 U. S. 200, 208 (1923) (Congress's "use of the definite article [in a reference to "the appraisement"] means an appraisement specifically provided for"). For "the alien"--in the clause "when the alien is released"--to have been previously specified, its scope must have been settled by the time the "when . . . released" clause appears at the tail end of paragraph (1).
For these reasons, we hold that the scope of "the alien" is fixed by the predicate offenses identified in subparagraphs (A)-(D).5 And since only those subparagraphs settle who is "described in paragraph (1)," anyone who fits their description falls under paragraph (2)'s detention mandate--even if (as with respondents) the Secretary did not arrest them immediately "when" they were "released."
Recall that subsection (a) has two sentences that provide the Secretary with general discretion over the arrest and release of aliens, respectively. We read each of subsection (c)'s two provisions--paragraph (1) on arrest, and paragraph (2) on release--as modifying its counterpart sentence in subsection (a). In particular, subsection (a) creates authority for anyone's arrest or release under §1226--and it gives the Secretary broad discretion as to both actions--while subsection (c)'s job is to subtract some of that discretion when it comes to the arrest and release of criminal aliens. Thus, subsection (c)(1) limits subsection (a)'s first sentence by curbing the discretion to arrest: The Secretary must arrest those aliens guilty of a predicate offense. And subsection (c)(2) limits subsection (a)'s second sentence by cutting back the Secretary's discretion over the decision to release: The Secretary may not release aliens "described in" subsection (c)(1)--that is, those guilty of a predicate offense. Accordingly, all the relevant detainees will have been arrested by authority that springs from subsection (a), and so, contrary to the Court of Appeals' view, that fact alone will not spare them from subsection (c)(2)'s prohibition on release. This reading comports with the Government's practice of applying to the arrests of all criminal aliens certain procedural requirements, such as the need for a warrant, that appear only in subsection (a). See Tr. of Oral Arg. 13-14.
The text of §1226 itself contemplates that aliens arrested under subsection (a) may face mandatory detention under subsection (c). The second sentence in subsection (a)--which generally authorizes the Secretary to release an alien pending removal proceedings--features an exception "as provided in subsection (c)." But if the Court of Appeals were right that subsection (c)(2)'s prohibition on release applies only to those arrested pursuant to subsection (c)(1), there would have been no need to specify that such aliens are exempt from subsection (a)'s release provision. This shows that it is possible for those arrested under subsection (a) to face mandatory detention under subsection (c). We draw a similar inference from the fact that subsection (c)(2), for its part, does not limit mandatory detention to those arrested "pursuant to" subsection (c)(1) or "under authority created by" subsection (c)(1)--but to anyone so much as "described in" subsection (c)(1). This choice of words marks a contrast with Congress's reference--in the immediately preceding subsection--to actions by the Secretary that are "authorized under" subsection (a). See §1226(b). Cf. 18 U. S. C. §3262(b) (referring to "a person arrested under subsection (a)" (emphasis added)). These textual cues indicate that even if an alien was not arrested under authority bestowed by subsection (c)(1), he may face mandatory detention under subsection (c)(2).
But even if the Court of Appeals were right to reject this reading, the result below would be wrong. To see why, assume with the Court of Appeals that only someone arrested under authority created by §1226(c)(1)--rather than the more general §1226(a)--may be detained without a bond hearing. And assume that subsection (c)(1) requires immediate arrest. Even then, the Secretary's failure to abide by this time limit would not cut off her power to arrest under subsection (c)(1). That is so because, as we have held time and again, an official's crucial duties are better carried out late than never. See Sylvain v. Attorney General of U. S., 714 F. 3d 150, 158 (CA3 2013) (collecting cases). Or more precisely, a statutory rule that officials " 'shall' act within a specified time" does not by itself "preclud[e] action later." Barnhart v. Peabody Coal Co., 537 U. S. 149, 158 (2003).
Especially relevant here is our decision in United States v. Montalvo-Murillo, 495 U. S. 711 (1990). There we held that "a provision that a detention hearing 'shall be held immediately upon the [detainee's] first appearance before the judicial officer' did not bar detention after a tardy hearing." Barnhart, 537 U. S., at 159 (quoting Montalvo-Murillo, 495 U. S., at 714). In that case, we refused to "bestow upon the defendant a windfall" and "visit upon the Government and the citizens a severe penalty by mandating release of possibly dangerous defendants every time some deviation from the [statutory] strictures . . . occur[red]." Montalvo-Murillo, 495 U. S., at 720. Instead, we gave effect to the principle that " 'if a statute does not specify a consequence for noncompliance with statutory timing provisions, the federal courts will not in the ordinary course impose their own coercive sanction.' " Barnhart, 537 U. S., at 159 (quoting United States v. James Daniel Good Real Property, 510 U. S. 43, 63 (1993)).
This principle for interpreting time limits on statutory mandates was a fixture of the legal backdrop when Congress enacted §1226(c). Cf. Woodford v. Garceau, 538 U. S. 202, 209 (2003) (relying on the "legal backdrop" against which "Congress legislated" to clarify what Congress enacted). Indeed, we have held of a statute enacted just four years before §1226(c) that because of our case law at the time--never since abrogated--Congress was "presumably aware that we do not readily infer congressional intent to limit an agency's power to get a mandatory job done merely from a specification to act by a certain time." Barnhart, 537 U. S., at 160 (relying on Brock v. Pierce County, 476 U. S. 253 (1986)). Here this principle entails that even if subsection (c)(1) were the sole source of authority to arrest aliens without granting them hearings, that authority would not evaporate just because officials had transgressed subsection (c)(1)'s command to arrest aliens immediately "when . . . released."
Respondents object that the rule invoked in Montalvo-Murillo and related cases does not apply here. In those cases, respondents argue, the governmental authority at issue would have disappeared entirely if time limits were enforced--whereas here the Secretary could still arrest aliens well after their release under the general language in §1226(a).
But the whole premise of respondents' argument is that if the Secretary could no longer act under §1226(c), she would lose a specific power--the power to arrest and detain criminal aliens without a bond hearing. If that is so, then as in other cases, accepting respondents' deadline-based argument would be inconsistent with "the design and function of the statute." Montalvo-Murillo, 495 U. S., at 719. From Congress's perspective, after all, it is irrelevant that the Secretary could go on detaining criminal aliens subject to a bond hearing. Congress enacted mandatory detention precisely out of concern that such individualized hearings could not be trusted to reveal which "deportable criminal aliens who are not detained" might "continue to engage in crime [or] fail to appear for their removal hearings." Demore, 538 U. S., at 513. And having thus required the Secretary to impose mandatory detention without bond hearings immediately, for safety's sake, Congress could not have meant for judges to "enforce" this duty in case of delay by--of all things--forbidding its execution. Cf. Montalvo-Murillo, 495 U. S., at 720 ("The end of exacting compliance with the letter" of the Bail Reform Act's requirement that a defendant receive a hearing immediately upon his first appearance before a judicial officer "cannot justify the means of exposing the public to an increased likelihood of violent crimes by persons on bail, an evil the statute aims to prevent").
Especially hard to swallow is respondents' insistence that for an alien to be subject to mandatory detention under §1226(c), the alien must be arrested on the day he walks out of jail (though respondents allow that it need not be at the jailhouse door--the "parking lot" or "bus stop" would do). Tr. of Oral Arg. 44. "Assessing the situation in realistic and practical terms, it is inevitable that" respondents' unsparing deadline will often be missed for reasons beyond the Federal Government's control. Montalvo-Murillo, 495 U. S., at 720. Cf. Regions Hospital v. Shalala, 522 U. S. 448, 459, n. 3 (1998) ("The Secretary's failure to meet the deadline, a not uncommon occurrence when heavy loads are thrust on administrators, does not mean that [she] lacked power to act beyond it"). To give just one example, state and local officials sometimes rebuff the Government's request that they give notice when a criminal alien will be released. Indeed, over a span of less than three years (from January 2014 to September 2016), the Government recorded "a total of 21,205 declined [requests] in 567 counties in 48 states including the District of Columbia." ICE, Fiscal Year 2016 ICE Enf. and Removal Operations Rep. 9. Nor was such local resistance unheard of when Congress enacted the language of §1226(c) in 1996. See S. Rep. No. 104-48, p. 28 (1995). Under these circumstances, it is hard to believe that Congress made the Secretary's mandatory-detention authority vanish at the stroke of midnight after an alien's release.
According to respondents, the Government's reading of §1226(c) flouts the interpretive canon against surplusage--the idea that "every word and every provision is to be given effect [and that n]one should needlessly be given an interpretation that causes it to duplicate another provision or to have no consequence." Scalia, Reading Law, at 174. See Kungys v. United States, 485 U. S. 759, 778 (1988) (plurality opinion of Scalia, J.) (citing the "cardinal rule of statutory interpretation that no provision should be construed to be entirely redundant"). Respondents' surplusage argument has two focal points.
First, respondents claim that if they face mandatory detention even though they were arrested well after their release, then "when . . . released" adds nothing to paragraph (1). In fact, however, it still has work to do. For one thing, it clarifies when the duty to arrest is triggered: upon release from criminal custody, not before such release or after the completion of noncustodial portions of a criminal sentence (such as a term of "parole, supervised release, or probation," as the paragraph goes on to emphasize). Thus, paragraph (1) does not permit the Secretary to cut short an alien's state prison sentence in order to usher him more easily right into immigration detention--much as another provision prevents officials from actually removing an alien from the country "until the alien is released from imprisonment." 8 U. S. C. §1231(a)(4)(A). And from the other end, as paragraph (1)'s language makes clear, the Secretary need not wait for the sentencing court's supervision over the alien to expire.
The "when . . . released" clause also serves another purpose: exhorting the Secretary to act quickly. And this point answers respondents' second surplusage claim: that the "Transition Period Custody Rules" enacted along with §1226(c) would have been superfluous if §1226(c) did not call for immediate arrests, since those rules authorized delays in §1226(c)'s implementation while the Government expanded its capacities. See Matter of Garvin-Noble, 21 I. & N. Dec. 672, 675 (BIA 1997). This argument again confuses what the Secretary is obligated to do with the consequences that follow if the Secretary fails (for whatever reason) to fulfill that obligation. The transition rules delayed the onset of the Secretary's obligation to begin making arrests as soon as covered aliens were released from criminal custody, and in that sense they were not superfluous.6 This is so even though, had the transition rules not been adopted, the Secretary's failure to make an arrest immediately upon a covered alien's release would not have exempted the alien from mandatory detention under §1226(c).
The Court of Appeals objected that the Government's reading of §1226(c) would have the bizarre result that some aliens whom the Secretary need not arrest at all must nonetheless be detained without a hearing if they are arrested. 831 F. 3d, at 1201-1203. This rather complicated argument, as we understand it, proceeds as follows. Paragraph (2) requires the detention of aliens "described in paragraph (1)." While most of the aliens described there have been convicted of a criminal offense, this need not be true of aliens captured by subparagraph (D) in particular--which covers, for example, aliens who are close relatives of terrorists and those who are believed likely to commit a terrorist act. See §1182(a)(3)(B)(i)(IX). But if, as the Government maintains, any alien who falls under subparagraphs (A)-(D) is thereby ineligible for release from immigration custody, then the Secretary would be forbidden to release even these aliens who were never convicted or perhaps even charged with a crime, once she arrested them. Yet she would be free not to arrest them to begin with (or so the Court of Appeals assumed), since she is obligated to arrest aliens "when . . . released," and there was no prior custody for these aliens to be "released" from. Therefore, the court concluded, the Government's position has the absurd implication that aliens who were never charged with a crime need not be arrested pending a removal determination, but if they are arrested, they must be detained and cannot be released on bond or parole.
To begin with the latter point: Under the Court of Appeals' reading, the mandatory-detention scheme would be gentler on terrorists than it is on garden-variety offenders. To see why, recall first that subparagraphs (A)-(C) cover aliens who are inadmissible or deportable based on the commission of certain criminal offenses, and there is no dispute that the statute authorizes their mandatory detention when they are released from criminal custody. And the crimes covered by these subparagraphs include, for example, any drug offense by an adult punishable by more than one year of imprisonment, see §§1182(a)(2), 1226(c)(1)(A), as well as a variety of tax offenses, see §§1226(c)(1)(B), 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii); Kawashima v. Holder, 565 U. S. 478 (2012). But notice that aliens who fall within subparagraph (D), by contrast, may never have been arrested on criminal charges--which according to the court below would exempt them from mandatory detention. Yet this subparagraph covers the very sort of aliens for which Congress was most likely to have wanted to require mandatory detention--including those who are representatives of a terrorist group and those whom the Government has reasonable grounds to believe are likely to engage in terrorist activities. See §§1182(a)(3)(B)(i)(III), (IV), 1226(c)(1)(D).7 Thus, by the Court of Appeals' logic, Congress chose to spare terrorist aliens from the rigors of mandatory detention--a mercy withheld from almost all drug offenders and tax cheats. See Brief for National Immigrant Justice Center as Amicus Curiae 7-8. That result would be incongruous.
In short, we read the "when released" directive to apply when there is a release. In other situations, it is simply not relevant. It follows that both of subsection (c)'s mandates--for arrest and for release--apply to any alien linked with a predicate offense identified in subparagraphs (A)-(D), regardless of exactly when or even whether the alien was released from criminal custody.
Finally, respondents perch their reading of §1226(c)--unsteadily, as it turns out--on the canon of constitutional avoidance. This canon provides that "[w]hen 'a serious doubt' is raised about the constitutionality of an act of Congress, '. . . this Court will first ascertain whether a construction of the statute is fairly possible by which the question may be avoided.' " Jennings, 583 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 12) (quoting Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22, 62 (1932)).
Respondents say we should be uneasy about endorsing any reading of §1226(c) that would mandate arrest and detention years after aliens' release from criminal custody--when many aliens will have developed strong ties to the country and a good chance of being allowed to stay if given a hearing. At that point, respondents argue, mandatory detention may be insufficiently linked to public benefits like protecting others against crime and ensuring that aliens will appear at their removal proceedings. In respondents' view, detention in that scenario would raise constitutional doubts under Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U. S. 678 (2001), which held that detention violates due process absent "adequate procedural protections" or "special justification[s]" sufficient to outweigh one's " 'constitutionally protected interest in avoiding physical restraint,' " id., at 690 (quoting Kansas v. Hendricks, 521 U. S. 346, 356 (1997)). Thus, respondents urge, we should adopt a reading of §1226(c)--their reading--that avoids this result.
The trouble with this argument is that constitutional avoidance " 'comes into play only when, after the application of ordinary textual analysis, the statute is found to be susceptible of more than one construction.' " Jennings, 583 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 12). The canon "has no application" absent "ambiguity." Warger v. Shauers, 574 U. S. 40, 50 (2014) (internal quotation marks omitted). See also Zadvydas, 533 U. S., at 696 ("Despite this constitutional problem, if Congress has made its intent in the statute clear, we must give effect to that intent" (internal quotation marks omitted)). Here the text of §1226 cuts clearly against respondents' position, see Part III, supra, making constitutional avoidance irrelevant.
We emphasize that respondents' arguments here have all been statutory. Even their constitutional concerns are offered as just another pillar in an argument for their preferred reading of the language of §1226(c)--an idle pillar here because the statute is clear. While respondents might have raised a head-on constitutional challenge to §1226(c), they did not. Our decision today on the meaning of that statutory provision does not foreclose as-applied challenges--that is, constitutional challenges to applications of the statute as we have now read it.
KIRSTJEN M. NIELSEN, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY, et al., PETITIONERS v. MONY PREAP, et al.
This case is also not about how long a noncitizen may be detained during removal proceedings or before removal. We have addressed that question in cases such as Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U. S. 678 (2001), Clark v. Martinez, 543 U. S. 371 (2005), and Jennings v. Rodriguez, 583 U. S. ___ (2018).
The sole question before us is narrow: whether, under §1226, the Executive Branch's mandatory duty to detain a particular noncitizen when the noncitizen is released from criminal custody remains mandatory if the Executive Branch fails to immediately detain the noncitizen when the noncitizen is released from criminal custody--for example, if the Executive Branch fails to immediately detain the noncitizen because of resource constraints or because the Executive Branch cannot immediately locate and apprehend the individual in question. No constitutional issue is presented. The issue before us is entirely statutory and requires our interpretation of the strict 1996 illegal-immigration law passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton. Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, 110 Stat. 3009-546.
It would be odd, in my view, if the Act (1) mandated detention of particular noncitizens because the noncitizens posed such a serious risk of danger or flight that they must be detained during their removal proceedings, but (2) nonetheless allowed the noncitizens to remain free during their removal proceedings if the Executive Branch failed to immediately detain them upon their release from criminal custody. Not surprisingly, the Act does not require such an odd result. On the contrary, the relevant text of the Act is relatively straightforward, as the Court explains. Interpreting that text, the Court correctly holds that the Executive Branch's detention of the particular noncitizens here remained mandatory even though the Executive Branch did not immediately detain them. I agree with the Court's careful statutory analysis, and I join the Court's opinion in full.
First, §1252(b)(9) bars judicial review of "all questions of law and fact, including interpretation and application of constitutional and statutory provisions, arising from any action taken or proceeding brought to remove an alien from the United States," except for review of "a final order" or other circumstances not present here. These cases raise questions of law or fact arising from removal proceedings--"[d]etention is necessarily a part of [the] deportation procedure" that culminates in the removal of the alien, Carlson v. Landon, 342 U. S. 524, 538 (1952)--and they do not come to us on review of final orders of removal. Thus, for the reasons I set forth in Jennings, supra, at ___-___ (slip op., at 1-11), no court has jurisdiction over these class actions.
Because three statutes deprive courts of jurisdiction over respondents' claims, I would have vacated the judgments below and remanded with instructions to dismiss the cases for lack of jurisdiction. But because the Court has held otherwise and I agree with the Court's disposition of the merits, I concur in all but Parts II and III-B-2 of its opinion.
The subsection containing the exception to which (a) refers--namely, subsection (c)--is entitled "Detention of criminal aliens." It consists of two paragraphs.
Paragraph (2), entitled "Release," says that the Secretary "may release an alien described in paragraph (1) only if" the alien falls within a special category--not relevant here--related to witness protection. §1226(c)(2) (emphasis added). We held last Term in Jennings that paragraph (2) forbids a bail hearing for "an alien described in paragraph (1)" unless the witness protection exception applies. 583 U. S., at ___-___ (majority opinion) (slip op., at 20-22).
The issue may sound technical. But it is extremely important. That is because the Government's reading of the statute--namely, that paragraph (2) forbids bail hearings for all ABCD aliens regardless of whether they were detained "when . . . released" from criminal custody--would significantly expand the Secretary's authority to deny bail hearings. Under the Government's view, the aliens subject to detention without a bail hearing may have been released from criminal custody years earlier, and may have established families and put down roots in a community. These aliens may then be detained for months, sometimes years, without the possibility of release; they may have been convicted of only minor crimes--for example, minor drug offenses, or crimes of "moral turpitude" such as illegally downloading music or possessing stolen bus transfers; and they sometimes may be innocent spouses or children of a suspect person. Moreover, for a high percentage of them, it will turn out after months of custody that they will not be removed from the country because they are eligible by statute to receive a form of relief from removal such as cancellation of removal. These are not mere hypotheticals. See Appendix B, infra. Thus, in terms of potential consequences and basic American legal traditions, see infra, at 11-12, the question before us is not a "narrow" one, ante, at 2 (Kavanaugh, J., concurring).
Consider the statute's language. Paragraph (1) of subsection (c) provides that the Secretary "shall take into custody" any ABCD alien--that is, any alien who is "inadmissible" or "deportable" under the subparagraphs labeled "A," "B," "C," and "D"--"when the alien is released" from, say, state or federal prison. Ibid. Paragraph (2), meanwhile, generally forbids a bail hearing for "an alien described in paragraph (1)." §1226(c)(2).
The majority emphasizes a grammatical point--namely, that ordinarily only adjectives or adjectival phrases "modify" nouns. Ante, at 12. But the statute does not use the word "modify." It uses the word "described." While the word "describe" will in some contexts refer only to the words that directly "modify" a noun, normally it has a broader meaning. Compare American Heritage Dictionary 490 (5th ed. 2011) (to "describe" is to "convey an idea or impression of") and Webster's Third New International Dictionary 610 (1986) (to "describe" is to "convey an image or notion of") with P. Peters, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage 355 (2004) (defining a "modifie[r]" as a word that "qualifies" a noun).
An example illustrates how these principles apply to the statute at issue here. Imagine the following cookbook recipe. Instruction (1) says: "(1) Remove the Angus steak from the grill when the steak is cooked to 120 degrees Fahrenheit." Instruction (4) says: "(4) Let the steak described in Instruction (1) rest for ten minutes and then serve it." What would we say of a chef who grilled an Angus steak to 185 degrees Fahrenheit, served it, and then appealed to these instructions--particularly the word "described" in Instruction (4)--as a justification? That he was not a good cook? That he had an odd sense of humor? Or simply that he did not understand the instructions? The chef would have no good textual defense: The steak "described in Instruction (1)" is not just an "Angus" steak, but an "Angus" steak that must be "remove[d] . . . when the steak is cooked to 120 degrees Fahrenheit." By the same logic, the alien in paragraph (1) is "described" not only by the four clauses--A, B, C, and D--that directly modify the word "alien," but also by the verb ("shall take") and that verb's modifier ("when the alien is released").
The same is true of the two paragraphs before us. The key word "described" appears not in paragraph (1), but in paragraph (2). Paragraph (2) refers back to the entirety of paragraph (1). And because paragraph (2) is the release provision, it contemplates that the action mandated by paragraph (1)--namely, detention--has already occurred. Thus, the function of the phrase "an alien described in paragraph (1)" is not to describe who must be detained, but instead to describe who must be denied bail.
In short, the language demonstrates that an alien is "described in paragraph (1)"--and therefore subject to paragraph (2)'s bar on bail hearings--only if the alien is "take[n] into custody . . . when the alien is released."
First, "Congress often drafts statutes with hierarchical schemes--section, subsection, paragraph, and on down the line." NLRB v. SW General, Inc., 580 U. S. ___, ___ (2017) (slip op., at 9). Congress employed that structure "to make precise cross-references" throughout the immigration code. Ibid. As relevant here, in a different detention provision enacted alongside the provision at issue here, Congress said that the Government "may release the alien only if the alien is an alien described in subparagraph (A)(ii) or (A)(iii)." Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), §303(b)(3)(B), 110 Stat. 3009-587. Yet Congress did not make such a precise cross-reference in paragraph (2): It did not refer to "an alien described in subparagraphs (A)-(D) of paragraph (1)," as it could have--and would have--done had it intended the majority's narrow interpretation. Instead, it referred to aliens "described" in the entirety of paragraph (1).
It is obvious that the second sentence of (a) applies only to those aliens who are detained following the rule in (a)'s first sentence. Parallel structure suggests that the same is true in (c): The second sentence of (c) applies only to those detained following the rule in (c)'s first sentence. Subsection (a)'s reference to (c) strengthens this structural inference: Subsection (a) says that its release rule applies "[e]xcept as provided in subsection (c)"--that is, except as provided in the whole of subsection (c), not simply paragraph (2) or the few lines the majority picks from (c)'s text.
Third, Congress' enactment of a special "transition" statute strengthens the point. When Congress enacted subsection (c), it recognized that there might be "insufficient detention space" and "personnel" to carry out subsection (c)'s requirements. IIRIRA, §303(b)(2), 110 Stat. 3009-586. It therefore authorized the Government to delay implementation of subsection (c)--initially for one year, then for a second year. Ibid.
Although the Court of Appeals correctly concluded that paragraph (2)'s prohibition on release applies only to an alien whom the Secretary "take[s] into custody . . . when the alien is released" from criminal custody, it also held that the phrase "when the alien is released" means that the Secretary must grant a bail hearing to any alien who is not " 'immediately detained' when released from criminal custody." Preap v. Johnson, 831 F. 3d 1193, 1207 (CA9 2016). I disagree with the Court of Appeals as to the meaning of the phrase "when the alien is released."
As an initial matter, the phrase "when the alien is released" imposes an enforceable statutory deadline. I cannot agree with Justice Alito, who writes for a plurality of the Court on this point, that our cases holding certain statutory deadlines unenforceable are applicable here. Ante, at 17. See, e.g., Barnhart v. Peabody Coal Co., 537 U. S. 149, 152 (2003) (holding that the Government's untimeliness did not bar it from taking action beyond the statutory deadline); United States v. Montalvo-Murillo, 495 U. S. 711, 713-714 (1990) (holding that a provision requiring a detention hearing to " 'be held immediately' " did not bar detention in the event of a late hearing); Brock v. Pierce County, 476 U. S. 253, 266 (1986) (holding that the Government's failure to observe a 120-day statutory deadline did not deprive it of authority under the statute).
I disagree with the plurality on this point because our case law makes clear that a statutory deadline against the Government must be enforced at least in contexts where "other part[s]" of the relevant statutes indicate that the time limit must be enforced, Montalvo-Murillo, supra, at 717; see also Barnhart, supra, at 161, 163; Dolan v. United States, 560 U. S. 605, 613 (2010); where the statute " 'specif[ies] a consequence for noncompliance' " with the time limit, Barnhart, supra, at 159 (quoting United States v. James Daniel Good Real Property, 510 U. S. 43, 63 (1993)); or where the harms caused by the Government's delay are likely to be serious, see Dolan, supra, at 615-616; Montalvo-Murillo, supra, at 719-720.
Moreover, the statute does " 'specify a consequence' " for the Secretary's failure to detain an alien "when the alien is released." Barnhart, supra, at 159 (quoting James Daniel Good, supra, at 63). In that case, subsection (c) will not apply, and the Secretary must fall back on subsection (a), the default detention and release provision. Critically, subsection (a) does not guarantee release. Rather, it leaves much to the Government's judgment: By regulation, aliens who are subject to subsection (a)'s default detention and release rules will simply receive a hearing at which they can attempt to demonstrate that, if released, they will not pose a risk of flight or a threat to the community. 8 CFR §§236.1(d)(1), 1236.1(d)(1).
The plurality objects that "Congress could not have meant for judges to 'enforce' " the mandatory detention requirement "in case of delay by--of all things--forbidding its execution." Ante, at 19. But treating the "when the alien is released" clause as an enforceable limit does not prohibit the Secretary from detaining the aliens that subsection (c) requires her to detain. Rather, the Secretary's failure to comply with the "when the alien is released" clause carries only one consequence: The Secretary cannot deny a bail hearing.
Mindful of "the greater immigration-related expertise of the Executive Branch" and "the serious administrative needs and concerns inherent in the necessarily extensive [Government] efforts to enforce this complex statute," I would interpret the word "when" in the same manner as we interpreted other parts of this statute in Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U. S. 678, 700 (2001). The words "when the alien is released" require the Secretary to detain aliens under subsection (c) within a reasonable time after their release from criminal custody--presumptively no more than six months. If the Secretary does not do so, she must grant a bail hearing. This presumptive 6-month limit is consistent with how long the Government can detain certain aliens while they are awaiting removal from the country. Id., at 682, 701 (interpreting a different provision, §1231(a)(6)). To insist upon similar treatment in this context would give the Government sufficient time to detain aliens following their release from local, state, or federal criminal custody. It would also ensure that the Government does not fall outside the 1-year maximum dictated by the transition statute. See supra, at 10, 14.
To reiterate: The question before us is not "narrow." Ante, at 2 (Kavanaugh, J., concurring). See supra, at 4. That is because we cannot interpret the words of this specific statute without also considering basic promises that America's legal system has long made to all persons. In deciphering the intent of the Congress that wrote this statute, we must decide--in the face of what is, at worst, linguistic ambiguity--whether Congress intended that persons who have long since paid their debt to society would be deprived of their liberty for months or years without the possibility of bail. We cannot decide that question without bearing in mind basic American legal values: the Government's duty not to deprive any "person" of "liberty" without "due process of law," U. S. Const., Amdt. 5; the Nation's original commitment to protect the "unalienable" right to "Liberty"; and, less abstractly and more directly, the longstanding right of virtually all persons to receive a bail hearing.
Together with Wilcox, Acting Field Office Director, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, et al. v. Khoury et al. (see this Court's Rule 12.4), also on certiorari to the same court.
In fact, if the dissent's argument from the transition rules were sound--i.e., if textual evidence that Congress expects the Executive to meet a deadline (once it officially takes effect) were proof that Congress wanted the deadline enforced by courts--then every case involving an express statutory deadline would be one in which Congress intended for courts to enforce the deadline. But this would include, by definition, all of the loss-of-authority cases we discussed above, see Part III-B-2, supra--a long line of precedent that the dissent does not question.
See n. 7, supra. Detainees who deny that they satisfy any §1226(c) predicate may challenge their mandatory detention in a Joseph hearing. See Matter of Joseph, 22 I. & N. Dec. 799 (BIA 1999). See also Jennings v. Rodriguez, 583 U. S. ___, ___, n. 1 (2018) (slip op., at 5, n. 1).

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