Kim Ho Ma v. Reno

Petitioner Kim Ho Ma is an alien who left his native land, Cambodia, as a refugee at the age of two and has resided in the United States as a legal permanent resident since he was six. At the age of seventeen he was involved in a gang-related shooting, and was convicted of manslaughter. After completing his prison sentence some two years later, he was taken into INS custody and ordered removed because of that conviction. However, the INS has been unable to remove him, and hundreds of others like him, because Cambodia does not have a repatriation agreement with the United States and therefore will not permit Ma’s return. 1 The question before us is whether, in light of the absence of such an agreement, the Attorney General has the legal authority to hold Ma, who is now twenty two, in detention indefinitely, perhaps for the remainder of his life.

Ma challenged his detention by filing a petition for habeas corpus, under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 , in the District Court for the Western District of Washington. That court ruled that Ma’s continued detention violates his substantive due process rights under the Fifth Amendment. 2 Respondents, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Janet…