United States Court of Appeals FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT Argued February 25, 2019 Decided March 26, 2019 No. 18-3076 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLANT v. JAIME OMAR VASQUEZ-BENITEZ, ALSO KNOWN AS GUERO, ALSO KNOWN AS ALEX ANTONIO VASQUEZ, ALSO KNOWN AS JAIME HUREO, ALSO KNOWN AS JERMAN VASQUEZ-MATO, ALSO KNOWN AS JULIO ISRAEL VASQUEZ, ALSO KNOWN AS HERMAN EDUARDO VASQUEZ, APPELLEE Consolidated with 18-3080 Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 1:18-cr-00275-1) Kathryne Gray, Trial Attorney, United States Department of Justice, argued the cause for the appellant. Jessie K. Liu, United States Attorney, Erez Reuveni, Director, Joshua S. Press, Trial Attorney, Nicholas P. Coleman and Elizabeth 2 Trosman, Assistant United States Attorneys were with her on brief. Julia Fong Sheketoff, Assistant Federal Public Defender, argued the cause for the appellee. A.J. Kramer, Federal Public Defender was with her on brief. Mary M. Petras, Assistant Federal Public Defender, entered an appearance. Yihong Mao was on brief for the amicus curiae National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild in support of the appellee. Before: HENDERSON and TATEL, Circuit Judges, and GINSBURG, Senior Circuit Judge. Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge HENDERSON. KAREN LECRAFT HENDERSON, Circuit Judge: Jaime Omar Vasquez-Benitez is a citizen of El Salvador who has illegally entered the United States more than once and been removed from the country at least once. Upon his most recent entry, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) civilly detained him for the purpose of removing him from the country. The United States Attorney for the District of Columbia (“U.S. Attorney”) also criminally charged him with unlawful reentry. Both his criminal and civil proceedings are currently ongoing. The district court decided (1) that it is unnecessary to detain Vasquez-Benitez in order to ensure his presence at his criminal trial and (2) that its ruling releasing him pre-trial means ICE cannot civilly detain Vasquez-Benitez in order to remove him from the country. The United States appeals both decisions. We affirm the district court’s decision declining to detain Vasquez-Benitez pending trial but reverse its decision prohibiting ICE from civilly detaining him pending removal. 3 I. BACKGROUND Vasquez-Benitez first entered the country illegally sometime before 2001. In 2001, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to appear in California state court on a charge of driving without a license. In 2005, he was accused of breaking into a woman’s residence in Washington, D.C., attempting to sexually assault her at knifepoint and threatening retaliation if she called the police. He stood trial in D.C. Superior Court, where he was acquitted of certain charges but convicted of obstruction of justice based on the threat. He was sentenced to a term of three years’ imprisonment, which he served from 2005 until 2008. Upon his release in 2008, ICE initiated proceedings to remove him from the country and he was removed to El Salvador. He reentered the country sometime before 2016, when he was arrested by the Metropolitan ...
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