The emergency stay of removal and who decides it, expedited removal at the border and the fear claim that interrupts it, the credible fear interview and review by a judge, habeas where no other court will hear the detention, parole and release requests, reinstated orders and the narrow objection to them, and the filing mechanics when the clock is measured in hours.
Under the expedited removal provision an immigration officer both finds inadmissibility and orders removal, with no hearing and no administrative appeal. A supervisory review requirement exists in the regulations but is internal. Judicial review is limited by statute to habeas and to three questions of identity, order and claimed status. The practical openings are the fear referral and the status-claim referral, both of which move the matter to a different decision-maker.
Stay authority is distributed. The enforcing agency can grant an administrative stay on a request filed with the office holding the file. An immigration judge or the Board can stay execution alongside a motion, and the appeal regulation supplies an automatic stay while an appeal runs. A court of appeals can stay an agency order under the appellate rule, which ordinarily expects the agency to have been asked first and requires the motion to explain why it was not.
The habeas statute directs that the application name the person having custody of the detainee, and district courts grant the writ within their respective jurisdictions. Together those provisions produce the ordinary rule that the immediate custodian is named and the petition is filed in the district of confinement. Departures from the rule are argued where the person is not confined in a conventional sense or where the custodian cannot be identified in time.
A positive reasonable fear finding refers the case to an immigration judge for proceedings limited to withholding of removal and protection under the torture convention. Asylum is unavailable because the reinstatement provision bars applications for relief. The reinstated order remains in force, and relief granted is country-specific: it bars removal to the country of feared harm and leaves removal to a third country available.
Federal courts maintain after-hours emergency contact arrangements, usually a duty or motions judge reached through a clerk. Electronic filing generally remains available when the building is closed, and the appellate rules address what happens when it is not. The first call is not an argument: it supplies the case posture, the scheduled removal time, the relief sought and the opposing party's position, so the clerk can decide who is woken.
Access to a detained client runs through the facility's own arrangements and is scheduled rather than available on demand. Calls are often short, monitored in ways that vary, and conducted through an interpreter on a third line. Instructions confirmed on such a call should be recorded contemporaneously, read back through the interpreter, and reduced to a signed authorization as soon as the facility's procedures allow.
A person released from post-order detention is released under an order of supervision. The regulation directs the order to specify conditions, including periodic reporting to a named officer with information given under oath, continued efforts to obtain a travel document and assistance to the agency in obtaining one, and attendance for medical examination where directed. Employment authorization is discretionary and rests on a specific finding.
A credible fear interview is conducted by an asylum officer in a non-adversarial setting, separate from the public. The standard is whether there is a significant possibility that eligibility for asylum or withholding could be established, taking account of credibility. A person may consult with someone of their choosing before the interview at no cost to the government and without unreasonable delay, and that person may attend and may be permitted to give a statement at the end.
Parole may be granted on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. The regulation identifies categories in which parole would generally be justified, including serious medical conditions, medically certified pregnancy, minors in custody, and witnesses in proceedings, provided the person presents neither a security risk nor a risk of absconding. Parole may be conditioned, may require a bond, and may be terminated.
Habeas corpus is the route to a federal district court on a question of immigration custody. The statute reaches a person held in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States. The application is written, signed and verified, alleges the facts of the custody and names the person having custody. The court awards the writ or orders the respondent to show cause, and the return is due in three days unless the court extends it for good cause.
Expedited removal proceeds unless the person indicates either an intention to apply for asylum or a fear of persecution. The regulations extend the trigger to an expressed fear of torture or of return. No legal terminology is required and no elaboration is necessary. The statement is recorded on the sworn statement forms and produces a referral for a fear screening, during which detention continues. Silence at that moment leaves the order intact.
After a removal order becomes final the statute sets a ninety-day removal period and permits continued detention beyond it for defined categories. A regulation supplies a review directed at whether there is a significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future. During proceedings, detention is either discretionary with a bond option or mandatory for defined categories, and the courts have divided on whether prolonged mandatory detention requires an individualized hearing.
