Case: 18-12915 Date Filed: 12/23/2019 Page: 1 of 11 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 18-12915 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 4:17-cv-01793-RDP-JHE BALBIR SINGH, Petitioner-Appellant, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, et al., Respondents-Appellees. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ________________________ (December 23, 2019) Before WILLIAM PRYOR, MARTIN, and SUTTON,* Circuit Judges. * Honorable Jeffrey S. Sutton, United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, sitting by designation. Case: 18-12915 Date Filed: 12/23/2019 Page: 2 of 11 MARTIN, Circuit Judge: Balbir Singh is a citizen of India subject to a final order of removal. Here we consider Mr. Singh’s appeal from the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. Mr. Singh has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) for over 31 months and argues that he is entitled to release under the Supreme Court’s ruling in Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, 121 S. Ct. 2491 (2001). After careful review, and with the benefit of oral argument, we conclude that this record was insufficient for the district court to deny Mr. Singh’s petition. We therefore remand for further proceedings. I. Mr. Singh is a native and citizen of India. He entered the United States sometime before 1983. In 1994, he was convicted of murder in California and sentenced to 16 years to life in prison. On September 23, 2016, Mr. Singh was transferred from the custody of California to the custody of ICE and placed in removal proceedings. He said he was afraid to return to India and received a reasonable fear interview on October 6, 2016. His interview resulted in a negative decision. Mr. Singh requested review of his negative fear determination and on October 21, 2016 an Immigration Judge found that he had not established a possibility of torture or persecution upon his being returned to India. Mr. Singh filed a petition for review and request for stay of removal with the Ninth Circuit 2 Case: 18-12915 Date Filed: 12/23/2019 Page: 3 of 11 Court of Appeals on November 25, 2016. On March 8, 2017, Mr. Singh was transferred to Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama. On April 19, 2017, the Ninth Circuit denied his request for a stay of removal. On October 24, 2017, Mr. Singh filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. He argued that, because six months had passed since his order of removal became final and his removal was not reasonably foreseeable, the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause did not permit ICE to continue detaining him. The District Court ordered the government to show cause why Mr. Singh’s petition should not be granted. In response to the show cause order, the government argued that Mr. Singh’s ongoing detention was permissible because he had taken actions to delay his removal and because ...
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