18‐749‐cr United States v. Lett 1 2 United States Court of Appeals 3 for the Second Circuit 4 5 August Term, 2019 6 7 (Argued: October 17, 2019 Decided: December 12, 2019) 8 9 Docket No. 18‐749‐cr 10 _____________________________________ 11 12 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 13 14 Appellant, 15 16 v. 17 18 KESTON LETT, 19 20 Defendant‐Appellee. 21 _____________________________________ 22 23 ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 24 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK 25 _____________________________________ 26 27 Before: 28 29 WINTER, POOLER, and PARK, Circuit Judges. 30 31 The United States appeals a decision of the United States District Court for 32 the Eastern District of New York (Brodie, J.) dismissing an indictment against 33 Keston Lett with prejudice. Notwithstanding a district court’s release order 34 pursuant to the Bail Reform Act, the government has the authority under the 35 Immigration and Nationality Act to detain a criminal defendant who is an alien 1 in the course of an administrative removal proceeding. Therefore, we VACATE 2 and REMAND with instructions for the district court to reinstate the indictment. 3 4 DAVID LIZMI, Assistant United States 5 Attorney (David C. James, Assistant United 6 States Attorney, on the brief), for Richard P. 7 Donoghue, United States Attorney for the 8 Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, 9 New York, for Appellant. 10 11 S. ISAAC WHEELER, Federal Defenders of 12 New York, New York, New York for 13 Defendant‐Appellee. 14 15 Park, Circuit Judge: 16 This case presents the question whether a district court’s authority to 17 release criminal defendants under the Bail Reform Act (“BRA”) is inconsistent 18 with the government’s authority to detain aliens under the Immigration and 19 Nationality Act (“INA”). The district court found that these two statutes are in 20 conflict and that a release order pursuant to the BRA precludes the government 21 from detaining a criminal defendant pursuant to the INA. We conclude that 22 there is no conflict between the detention‐and‐release provisions of the two 23 statutes, and we hold that immigration authorities may lawfully detain a 24 criminal defendant ordered to be released under the BRA pursuant to their 25 authority under the INA to detain aliens seeking admission into the United 2 1 States who are not “clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted” for 2 removal proceedings. 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A). Accordingly, we VACATE and 3 REMAND with instructions for the district court to reinstate the indictment. 4 I 5 Keston Lett is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago who was arrested at John F. 6 Kennedy International Airport after United States Customs and Border 7 Protection (“CBP”) allegedly found 2.12 kilograms of cocaine in his suitcase. 8 CBP paroled Lett into the United States for criminal prosecution and transferred 9 him to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”), and the government filed a 10 criminal complaint charging Lett with importing cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. 11 §§ 952(a), 960. ...
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