Hyung Joon Kim v. James W. Ziglar, Commissioner John Ashcroft, Attorney General

We consider a constitutional challenge to § 236(c) of the Immigration and Nationali ty Act (“INA”), 8 U.S.C. § 1226 (c), which requires that the Attorney General take into custody, and detain without bail, certain categories of aliens during the pen-dency of removal proceedings against them.

Petitioner Hyung Joon Kim, a citizen of Korea, came to the United States in 1984 at the age of six. Two years later, at the age of eight, .he became a lawful permanent resident alien. In July 1996, at the age of 18, he was convicted of first degree burglary in California state court. In August 1997, he was convicted in California state court of petty theft with priors, and was sentenced to three years imprisonment. The day after his release from state custody, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) detained Kim pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226 (c)(1)(B), on the ground that his second conviction qualified as an “aggravated felony” under 8 U.S.C. § 1101 (a)(43), which in turn made him removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227 (a)(2)(A)(iii).

On May 17, 1999, after more than three months in INS custody, Kim filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 , arguing that…