PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 19-7736 JOSE ANDRES OBANDO-SEGURA Petitioner – Appellant, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General; ALEJANDRO N. MAYORKAS, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; TAE D. JOHNSON, Acting Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; DOROTHY HERRERA−NILES, Field Office Director, Enforcement and Removal Operations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; CHARLES LEE, Assistant Field Office Director, Enforcement and Removal Operations, U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement; DONNA BOUNDS, Warden of Immigration Facility, Worcester County, Respondents – Appellees. -------------------- NATIONAL IMMIGRATION PROJECT OF THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD; LEGAL AID JUSTICE CENTER; AMERICAN IMMIGRATION COUNCIL; HABEAS CORPUS AND FEDERAL LITIGATION SCHOLARS, Amici Supporting Petitioner. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore. George L. Russell, III, District Judge. (1:17-cv-03190-GLR) Argued: December 9, 2020 Decided: May 28, 2021 Before KEENAN and RICHARDSON, Circuit Judges, and TRAXLER, Senior Circuit Judge. Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Richardson wrote the majority opinion, in which Senior Judge Traxler joined. Judge Keenan wrote a dissenting opinion. ARGUED: Sean A. Mirski, ARNOLD & PORTER KAYE SCHOLER LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Jonathan Aaron Robbins, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Adina Appelbaum, Claudia R. Cubas, CAPITAL AREA IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS (CAIR) COALITION, Washington, D.C.; R. Stanton Jones, Andrew T. Tutt, ARNOLD & PORTER KAYE SCHOLER LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Joseph H. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, Anthony P. Nicastro, Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellees. Sean Marotta, Jared Crum, Sarah Ruckriegle, HOGAN LOVELLS US LLP, Washington, D.C., for Amici Habeas Corpus and Federal Litigation Scholars. Sirine Shebaya, Cristina Velez, NATIONAL IMMIGRATION PROJECT OF THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD, Washington, D.C.; Carmine D. Boccuzzi, Jr., Tapan R. Oza, Aaron Francis, CLEARY GOTTLIEB STEEN & HAMILTON LLP, New York, New York, for Amici National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Legal Aid Justice Center, and American Immigration Council. 2 RICHARDSON, Circuit Judge: Jose Andres Obando-Segura prevailed on an application for a writ of habeas corpus seeking release from federal immigration detention. He now seeks to recover attorney’s fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act. See 28 U.S.C. § 2412. We have held that the Act does not apply to a habeas proceeding seeking release from criminal detention. See O’Brien v. Moore, 395 F.3d 499, 508 (4th Cir. 2005). And today we hold that the same is true for habeas proceedings seeking release from civil detention. Because the Act does not provide a basis for Obando to recover attorney’s fees, we affirm the district court’s denial. I. Background A. Obando’s detention and habeas application Obando legally came to the United States in 2001 with a visa authorizing him to stay for six months. But he stayed well beyond his authorized time. Seven years after he arrived, he was convicted and sentenced to four years in California prison after he was found with a suitcase full of marijuana and a .40 caliber pistol. 1 After …
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