Moreno-Pena

MEMORANDUM ***

The central issue raised by Moreno-Pena’s appeal was whether the Supreme Court’s statutory construction of 8 U.S.C. § 1231 (a)(6) in Zadvydas v. INS, 533 U.S. 678 , 121 S.Ct. 2491 , 150 L.Ed.2d 653 (2001), applies to inadmissible aliens. This issue has been settled by our recent decision in Lin Guo Xi v. INS, 298 F.3d 832 (9th Cir., Aug. 1, 2002). Section 1231(a)(6) provides for the detainment of aliens sub *273 ject to a final order of removal. In Zadvydas , the Supreme Court, in order to avoid constitutional difficulties arising out of the indefinite detention of deportable aliens, interpreted the statute to contain an implicit “reasonable time” limitation. Moreno-Pena, an inadmissible “Mariel Cuban” in INS custody, filed a habeas petition, arguing that the Supreme Court’s statutory construction applies to inadmissible as well as deportable aliens. The district court rejected Moreno-Pena’s petition, but in Xi, we accepted the same argument made by Moreno-Pena.

Following Xi, the holding of Zadvydas applies to Moreno-Pena. If there is “no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future,” Zadvydas, 533 U.S. at 701 , Moreno-Pena must be…