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Habeas Corpus

Habeas Corpus means have the body. It is a Latin phrase used in the U.S. law giving you the right to challenge the government's authorities or reasons to detain or imprison you and conditions of your detention. Sometimes, an initial lawful detention may become unlawful. For example, the government invites you for questioning and later detains you without a reason; the conditions of your detention violates the local or state or federal laws ; the government tries to deport you but without success and continues to detain you. When that happens, upon request, a formal court order can be requested from the local courts to seek your release and address the issues.

28 U.S. Code Section 2254 and 28 U.S. Code section 2241 prohibits the government to unlawfully detain a prisoner if his detention violates the Constitutions or laws or treaties of the United States. Nebraska Revised Statute 29-2801 states "If any person, except persons convicted of some crime or offense for which they stand committed, or persons committed for treason or felony, the punishment whereof is capital, plainly and specially expressed in the warrant of commitment, now is or shall be confined in any jail of this state, or shall be unlawfully deprived of his or her liberty, and shall make application, either by him or herself or by any person on his or her behalf, to any one of the judges of the district court, or to any county judge, and does at the same time produce to such judge a copy of the commitment or cause of detention of such person, or if the person so imprisoned or detained is imprisoned or detained without any legal authority, upon making the same appear to such judge, by oath or affirmation, it shall be his duty forthwith to allow a writ of habeas corpus, which writ shall be issued forthwith by the clerk of the district court, or by the county judge, as the case may require, under the seal of the court whereof the person allowing such writ is a judge, directed to the proper officer, person or persons who detains such prisoner."

In Hu v. Wolf et al, 8:20-cv-415, Li Law Group represented our client who was ordered to be removed from the U.S. but the DHS and ICE failed to remove her in a Habeas Corpus petition. We successfully argued that the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska has jurisdiction and our client is entitled to immediate release as a result of her unlawful detention. The government subsequently released our client before the case was dismissed for mootness.

Reliefs

If you are being unlawfully detained or held in custody by the government, you have a right to request certain reliefs including, but may not be limited to, a writ of habeas corpus directing government's immediate release, preliminary injunction and or permanent injunction from future unlawful detention, and/or an award of attorney's fee under 5 U.S.C. section 504 and under the Equal Access to Justice Act.

Disclaimer: the facts and legal circumstances of cases mentioned on this website are/may not be the same or similar to other cases or to your case, reader should not expect the same results could be obtained in each similar case.