The bottomline of the Supreme Court decision in Zadvydas v. Davis is that an alien who has committed crimes that would normally require an order of deportation cannot be held in custody for more than six months awaiting deportation if there is no prospect for a location where he or she may be deported to. We don’t send Somalis back to Somalia. Although as one reader pointed out, why don’t we if the Saudis do and as Canada has done.
This Star Tribune article argues that Somali refugee, Omar Mohamed Kalmio, would have been deported by now and not implicated in the murder of four in North Dakota (as of this moment, I do not think any charges have been filed against the ‘person of interest’) had we sent him back to Somalia (or somewhere).
Under usual circumstances involving an immigrant with a violent criminal record, the man — suspect or not — would probably not have been in the United States when the killings happened.
He has an extensive criminal record in Minnesota. His most serious offense occurred in January 2006, when he stabbed another male during an altercation in an apartment building entry near Cedar and Riverside Avenues in Minneapolis.
According to the charges, several others were involved in that assault, which left the victim with a collapsed lung, a concussion and stab wounds to his right eye, right shoulder and back.
In June 2006, the man pleaded guilty in Hennepin County to second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, a felony. He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison with credit for 143 days served. He finished his state prison term in January 2007.
It is the practice of immigration officials to begin deportation proceedings immediately after an alien offender is released from local or state custody. But that gets dicier when dealing with offenders from countries that either refuse to take them back or do not have formal relations with the United States.
Somalis can still be under deportation orders, but those orders are not acted upon.
When asked whether officials obtained a deportation order regarding the man, immigration officials referred to a June 2001 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In that ruling, a Lithuanian man with a long criminal record who had been ordered deported could not be deported because no country would accept him. Yet, the high court ruled, U.S. officials could also not keep him locked up indefinitely. Generally, the court ruled, such offenders cannot be detained for more than six months.
This also means that the Seattle Somali who was sentenced to six years for the beating and torture of a white teen will be out on your streets (anywhere in America) in six years.