ABSTRACT
This chapter, the US Supreme Court ruled that resident aliens held by the government beyond the ninety-day removal period were entitled to a habeas corpus hearing (hearing held on a petition for release from unlawful confinement) if they were detained more than six months beyond expiration of this time period. The case was significant because it limited the power of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to indefinitely detain aliens awaiting deportation. This indefinite holding of an alien by the INS was the subject of the dispute in Zadvydas v. Davis. The INS argued that the statute permitted this, but the Court stated that indefinite detention raised serious constitutional questions, especially when deportation hearings were supposed to be civil and nonpunitive. The majority concluded some reasonable limit was necessary on how long a person could be held, which the Court decided was six months beyond the expiration of the ninety–day removal period.
