Fofana v. Hassel

On December 4, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled in Fofana v. Hassel. Petitioner Moussa Fofana, an asylum seeker from Guinea, had been detained by ICE for over one year without a bond hearing. He filed a habeas corpus petition arguing that his prolonged detention violated the Due Process Clause. The court reviewed the statutory and constitutional constraints on immigration detention. It found that the government's indefinite civil detention without an individualized bond hearing was unlawful under the Fifth Amendment and relevant precedent, including Zadvydas v. Davis. The court ordered the government to provide Fofana a bond hearing within 30 days, failing which he must be released. The case underscored the judiciary's role in checking executive detention power over noncitizens.

The court granted the habeas petition in part and ordered the government to provide Moussa Fofana with an individualized bond hearing before an immigration judge within 30 days; should the government fail to do so, Fofana must be released from custody.

Whether the prolonged detention of an asylum seeker without an individualized bond hearing violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and the statutory framework of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and whether a habeas corpus remedy is appropriate to compel such a hearing.

The decision reinforced due process protections for detained immigrants, limiting the government's ability to indefinitely hold asylum seekers without a bond hearing. It provided a significant judicial remedy for prolonged civil detention and influenced subsequent litigation over ICE detention practices across the United States.