Case Name: Monsuru O. TIJANI, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Wayne K. WILLIS, Interim Director, Interior Immigration Enforcement, United States Department of Homeland Security; Caryl Thompson, OIC, Respondents-Appellees
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 2005-12-13
Citations: 430 F.3d 1241
Docket Number: No. 04-55285
Parties: Monsuru O. TIJANI, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Wayne K. WILLIS, Interim Director, Interior Immigration Enforcement, United States Department of Homeland Security; Caryl Thompson, OIC, Respondents-Appellees.
Judges: Before: NOONAN, TASHIMA, and CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 3d Series
Volume: 430
Pages: 1241–1253

Head Matter:
Monsuru O. TIJANI, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Wayne K. WILLIS, Interim Director, Interior Immigration Enforcement, United States Department of Homeland Security; Caryl Thompson, OIC, Respondents-Appellees.
No. 04-55285.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Argued and Submitted Jan. 10, 2005.
Filed Dec. 13, 2005.
Steven A. Hirsch, Keker & Van Nest, LLP, San Francisco, CA, Lucas Guttentag, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, Oakland, CA, and Judy Rabinovitz, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, New York, NY, for the petitioner.
Carol C. Lam, United States Attorney, Tom Stahl, Assistant U.S. Attorney, and Ernest Cordero, Jr., Assistant U.S. Attorney, United States Attorney’s Office, San Diego, CA, for the respondents-appellants.
Before: NOONAN, TASHIMA, and CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
NOONAN, Circuit Judge:
As of today's date, Tijani has been deprived of his liberty by the government for a period of over two years and eight months. ' This deprivation has been inflicted not as the result of any adjudication of crime but as a bureaucratic application of the authority conferred on the Attorney General by 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c). Despite the substantial powers that Congress may exercise in regard to aliens, it is constitutionally doubtful that Congress may authorize imprisonment of this duration for lawfully admitted resident aliens who are subject to removal. See Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, 690, 121 S.Ct. 2491, 150 L.Ed.2d 653 (2001). The case is distinct from Demore v. Kim, 538 U.S. 510, 513-514, 123 S.Ct. 1708, 155 L.Ed.2d 724 (2003), where the alien conceded deporta-bility.
To avoid deciding the constitutional issue, we interpret the authority conferred by § 1226(c) as applying to expedited removal of criminal aliens. Two years and eight months of process is not expeditious; and the foreseeable process in this court, where the government's brief in Tijani's appeal of the removal was only filed last month after two extensions of time, is a year or more. -
We remand to the district court with directions to grant the writ unless the government within 60 days of this order provides a hearing to Tijani before an Immigration Judge with the power to grant him bail unless the government establishes that he is a flight risk or will be a danger to the community. See Cooper v. Oklahoma, 517 U.S. 348, 363, 116 S.Ct. 1373, 134 L.Ed.2d 498 (1996).
REVERSED and REMANDED.