Opinion ID: 6983223
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Permanent Confinement

Text: The district court held that Zadvydas’ detention violated his substantive due process rights because it constituted “permanent confinement” in that he “will never be deported because there is no place to send him.” 986 F.Supp. at 1026, 1027. We conclude that these reasons considerably overstate the matter. To begin with, Zadvydas may be released when it is determined that he is no longer either a threat to the community or a flight risk, and he is entitled to automatic review of his case for this purpose every six months, with opportunity to present factors in support of his release, and, where his written application for release has been denied by the district director, he may appeal that decision to the BIA. See note 9, supra, and accompanying text. In Barrera-Echavarria, the en banc Ninth Circuit concluded that analogous annual INS administrative review for release under similar standards precluded characterization of the alien’s detention as “ ‘indefinite’ or ‘permanent.’ ” 44 F.3d at 1450. 12 Nor can it now be said with any real assurance that Zadvydas “will never be deported.” To be sure, it is clear that due to an unfortunate combination of circumstances, locating a country to which Zadvy-das may be deported has been and will be difficult at best; but that there is no meaningful possibility of doing so has not been clearly established. And, precisely because of the complexities involved, more time than usual will doubtless in any event be required. The problem of deporting Zadvydas has its roots in the tortured twentieth century history of what is now Lithuania. Up until the German defeat in World War One, portions of Lithuania were located in Germany. Zadvydas’ mother was born in that section of modern Lithuania — then known as the Memel region, now called Klaipe-da — in 1919. Six years earlier (according to his own account in an affidavit prepared to secure his post-war immigration to America), Zadvydas’ father had been born in Mazeikiai, which is located on the Baltic coast outside of the disputed Memel region and thus would presumably have been under Russian control at the time of his birth. As part of the Versailles Treaty, Germany ceded the Memel region to the Allies. Lithuania, having renewed its existence as an independent state, successfully laid claim to the area and occupied it in 1923- At that point, Zadvydas’ mother and father presumably would both have been Lithuanian citizens, since they were apparently born within the resurrected nation’s current borders. However, in 1939 Germany issued an ultimatum to Lithuania demanding the return of the Memel region, referencing the alleged plight of ethnic Germans under Lithuanian rule. The territory was then handed back to Germany, and (if she was still living in the region) Zadvydas’ mother then would have become a subject of Nazi Germany. Unlucky in neighbors, Lithuania then had its independence extinguished by Stalin’s 1940 invasion, which placed Zadvydas’ father in the Soviet orbit (again, presuming he lived near his claimed home town at the time). See generally Algimantas Gureckas, Lithuania’s Boundaries and Territorial Claims Between Lithuania and Neighboring States, 12 N.Y.L. Sch. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 107 (1991). Hitler then invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, and Lithuania was under German occupation for most of the Second World War. Late in that conflict, the Soviet army reoccupied Lithuania. The Soviets did not reestablish the Lithuanian independence they had earlier snuffed out, and Lithuania remained a captive to Soviet tyranny until 1991. In the midst of all this, Zadvydas’ parents were married in 1943. At some point, the couple moved (or fled) to Germany, where their first child was born in 1944. The family spent the immediate post-war years in displaced person camps in Germany. On Nov. 21, 1948, Zadvydas was born in one of these camps. In 1956 the family immigrated to America. Due to these events, Zadvydas may in a sense be stateless. While born in Germany, he cannot claim German citizenship on that basis alone, because under German law citizenship hinges on blood (jus sanguinis ) rather than place of birth (jus soli). Lithuania would seem to be the obvious alternative. Lithuanian sanguinis may be able to substitute for Zadvydas’ birth outside of Lithuania. According to the communications from the Lithuanian government, Zadvydas can apply for Lithuanian citizenship if both his parents were born in Lithuania prior to the Soviet invasion in 1940. 13 According to their own accounts, both parents would qualify under this standard. The difficulty that has so far delayed the process seems to be the need to document this fact. There is a baptismal certificate indicating his mother’s birth in the Memel region, which is now part of Lithuania. 14 However, there is no corresponding documentation demonstrating that Zadvydas’ father was born in Mazeikiai. The only evidence that has been unearthed up to this point is his affidavit upon entering the United States, which claimed birth in Lithuania. The Lithuanian government, in letters dated October 26, 1998, and March 25, 1999, indicated that Zadvydas might apply for citizenship, but would have to personally and formally request it, and present documentation of his parent’s birth. The INS had previously presented most of the available documentation — the baptismal certificate and Zadvydas’ father’s affidavit — in its communications with Lithuania. It is not clear, however, whether these materials were examined by the Lithuanians as support for an application for citizenship, rather than as part of a claim that Zadvydas already possessed citizenship. Certainly there has been no definitive denial by Lithuania of any application for citizenship by Zadvydas. Accordingly, it is premature to assume that the Lithuanians will reject Zadvydas based on the current documentation. Even if they were to demand more reliable evidence of his father’s birthplace, there is no basis on which to conclude that more cannot be uncovered. After all, it does not seem disputed that he was born in what became Lithuania. For example, a search of the public records in Mazeikiai or elsewhere (so far apparently unperformed anywhere by anyone) might prove fruitful. To be sure, such efforts may ultimately prove unsuccessful. And even if unimpeachable evidence of Lithuanian parentage is produced, there is a hint in the record that Lithuania might be able to reject Zadvydas’ application based on his criminal record. However, there is no basis for finding that any ability of Zadvy-das to become a Lithuanian citizen, and hence deportable there, has been definitively foreclosed. Also, apart from Lithuania, two other potential options appear to remain unexplored. The record indicates that the German government, in a letter dated May 1995, has definitively rejected the INS’ efforts to deport Zadvydas to Germany and mentioned “extensive research” establishing that he is not a German citizen. If — as it appears — the only evidence put forth by the INS was Zadvydas’ birth in Germany, this decision would seem justified under the jus sanguinis principle. However, it would seem that another argument, as yet apparently untapped, might properly be advanced to justify Zadvydas’ German citizenship. Zadvydas may in fact have German blood, and thus qualify under jus sanguinis. After World War Two, German law allowed members of ethnic German communities — some of which, such as the “Volga Germans,” had been separated from Germany proper for centuries — to claim citizenship under far more lenient terms than applied to foreigners generally. See Note, Deutschland ist Doch ein Einwanderungsland Geworden: Proposals to Address Germany’s Status as a “Land of Immigration, ” 80 Vand. J. Transnat’l L. 905, 916-923 (1997). Zadvydas’ mother was born in the Memel region in 1919. Prior to its defeat in World War One, this region was part of Germany. It would thus seem reasonably possible that Zadvydas’ mother could be considered an ethnic German— indeed, her birth documentation is in German, not Lithuanian or Polish. It lists her maiden name as Steffan, and her mother’s maiden name as Jackshies. It is not obvious to us that these are non-Germanic names. Perhaps Zadvydas could apply for German citizenship claiming ethnic German ancestry. 15 Obviously, the success of such an approach is far from assured — and even if Zadvydas’ ethnic status can be shown, his presence in the United States, lack of language skills, or what seems to be his father’s likely un-Teutonie ethnicity might defeat such an application. But see id. at 923 (“Judicial interpretation and administrative application of the statutes governing naturalization of ethnic Germans have established that the threshold for proving oneself to be an ethnic German is very low.”). A final potential option, apparently completely unexplored, is to attempt to claim Russian citizenship for Zadvydas. Wherever Zadvydas’ parents were born, it seems undisputed that their birthplaces would have been inside the borders of the Soviet Union at its post-war height. Russia has apparently been liberal in granting citizenship to former citizens of the Soviet Union now living outside of Russia’s borders. See Kalvaitis, National Identity in the Baltic States, 16 Bos. U. Int’l L.J. at 240 n. 64. It is noted in an INS affidavit that Zadvydas’ mother travels to Russia frequently. Before the immigration judge Zadvydas seemed to indicate that these visits were to visit family. 16 An INS letter indicates the Zadvydas’s mother has a sister in Russia whom she visits every year. If Zadvydas does indeed have an aunt living in Russia, he might perhaps qualify for citizenship there. The record does not reveal the details of this apparent family relationship, nor does it contain a discussion of Russian citizenship law. Again, then, success obviously cannot be presumed. The point is that the record indicates that there may be some slight possibility of this, and that this possibility is apparently wholly unexplored. As the preceding discussion indicates, the unfortunate historical context of Zad-vydas’ birth makes untangling his true nationality highly difficult and time consuming at best. But that does not mean impossible. Continued efforts might eventually produce a breakthrough with Lithuania — and, if required, further proof of his father’s birth may ultimately be unearthed. And avenues for claiming German and Russian citizenship remain unexplored. Nor is it clear that the Dominican situation has been fully explored. While the delay here is long, it appears to be what one could expect given the tangled circumstances and inadequate documentation. Given the traditional deference we show to the other branches in matters of immigration policy, judicial intrusion should not be considered, particularly where there are reasonable avenues for parole, until there is a more definitive showing that deportation is impossible, not merely problematical, difficult, and distant. However, it is certainly no clearer here that Zadvydas “will never be deported because there is no place to send him” than it was respecting the aliens in Gisbert, and here, as also in Gisbert, 988 F.2d at 1447, the government is continuing its efforts to effect Zadvydas’ removal.