Opinion ID: 2801464
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Pre-Indictment Detention

Text: As for the pre-indictment period, Zavala was subject to a reinstated order of removal on his first day in ICE custody, September 20, 2010, and he did not contest this order, meaning ICE could have deported him at any time thereafter. 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(5) (stating that “the alien shall be removed under the prior order at any time after the reentry”). ICE nonetheless continued to detain Zavala until October 6, 2010, when he was indicted for illegal reentry. As we stated earlier, the BOP Program Statement does not bar Zavala from receiving sentencing credit during any period in which he was being detained pending potential prosecution. The record before us, however, does not show whether he was held pending potential criminal prosecution, and if so, for what part of the pre-indictment period. On the one hand, execution of a removal order is not required to be instantaneous, see § 1231(a)(1), and it is therefore possible that Zavala’s continuing detention was related to the process of implementing the deportation order.16 On the other hand, the process of indicting a criminal defendant is ordinarily not a one-day affair. Usually it requires some investigation and deliberation before a decision to indict (or to file a criminal complaint) is made by the criminal authorities, normally the 16 We note that when Zavala was previously removed in 2006, ICE deported him just one day after it obtained the order of removal. 24 ZAVALA V. IVES U.S. Attorney’s Office. During that process, federal prosecutors and immigration officials often cooperate in determining whether criminal charges are warranted and particularly in ensuring the alien’s presence at the criminal proceedings. Zavala is entitled to credit for the latter type of detention—detention for the purpose of ensuring his presence at his prosecution—but not for the former type—detention for the purpose of executing the removal order.17 Because the district court erred in holding that as a matter of law Zavala could not receive any credit toward his sentence for time spent in ICE detention, it failed to consider whether that detention was pending deportation or pending potential prosecution. We therefore remand for the district court to determine in the first instance whether and when, during the pre-indictment period, Zavala’s detention status changed from detention pending deportation to detention pending potential prosecution. We hold that, on remand, the government has the burden of proving that the pre-indictment detention was for the 17 To be clear, we disagree with the statement in Abpikar v. Lompoc Federal Bureau of Prisons relied upon by the magistrate judge in this case. The magistrate judge held, quoting Abpikar, that the filing of “a charge [by a U.S. Attorney] or [a] determination of probable cause” by a grand jury is required before detention can constitute “official detention” within the meaning of § 3585(b). Abpikar, 2012 WL 3777156, at . First, in cases concerning detention by law enforcement officials, sentencing credit is awarded from the time of arrest, not from the time that charges are formally filed or an indictment returned. See BOP Program Statement 5880.28 at 1-21. Second, as explained supra, the approach we adopt has already been successfully applied to detention by immigration officials, and BOP already regularly calculates sentencing credit in the analogous state detention context. Moreover, the Abpikar approach (also propounded by the dissent) has no basis in the text of the statute and would fail to address arbitrary sentencing disparities. ZAVALA V. IVES 25 purpose of deportation rather than potential prosecution. This burden is justified for two reasons. First, it furthers judicial efficiency in light of the “judicial estimate of the probabilities of the situation.” 2 McCormick on Evidence § 337 (7th ed. 2013). After all, we know how this story ends: Zavala was not deported, but prosecuted. This is so in all sentencing credit cases arising under § 3585(b). In such cases, it is always clear that at some point in time the government elected to pursue the possibility of prosecution, rather than to deport the alien in the normal course. Had it chosen otherwise, the question of credit toward a criminal sentence would not arise. In other words, the most likely outcome is that the alien is entitled to some sentencing credit beyond that credited from the date on which the indictment or formal charges were filed. Second, evidence as to the reason for an alien’s detention “is peculiarly accessible to one of the parties,” Edmund M. Morgan, Instructing the Jury Upon Presumptions and Burden of Proof, 47 Harv. L. Rev. 59, 79 (1933). The government unquestionably has superior access to the critical information—i.e. reports of investigation by ICE officers, records of the criminal investigation component of ICE, sworn statements by investigating officers, the time and contents of communications between ICE officers and prosecutorial agencies, and so forth—the information that is determinative of when an alien’s detention status changed from detention pending deportation to detention pending potential prosecution. The fact-finding required on remand is not some amorphous “inquiry into the elusive intent of individual [ICE] officers,” as the dissent contends. Dissent at 12. Rather, it is primarily a matter of reviewing records that ICE already maintains in the ordinary course of its operations. 26 ZAVALA V. IVES For example, the government could meet its burden of proving that pre-indictment detention was for the purpose of deportation rather than potential prosecution by producing evidence that proceedings to determine deportability were actively being pursued, or, where a final removal order has already been obtained (as in this case), that it was in the process of making logistical arrangements for the detainee’s departure from the country, and that it was not merely awaiting action by the U.S. Attorney’s Office or helping build a criminal case.18 We accordingly remand for the district court to conduct an evidentiary hearing. The relevant question on remand is whether the Government can establish that Zavala’s detention from September 20, 2010 to October 5, 2010 was not for the purpose of potential prosecution.