Federal judge blocks removal of petitioner from Alaska in Alebw case

Chief U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason on Wednesday signed an amended temporary restraining order blocking the removal of a petitioner outside the District of Alaska, in a habeas-style action whose structure tracks a small but growing line of federal immigration cases in the state.

Alaska has no federal immigration detention facility, and ICE detainees in the state are typically held at the Anchorage Correctional Complex under contract with the State of Alaska Department of Corrections.

In the most recent comparable case in this district, Salad v. State of Alaska, Department of Corrections, the named respondents included the Superintendent of the Anchorage Correctional Complex, the State of Alaska Department of Corrections, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Acting Director of ICE.

The court in Salad ultimately ruled that ICE may not detain a foreign national pending removal where a Temporary Protected Status application is pending, because removal is not reasonably foreseeable under those circumstances — a holding rooted in the U.S. Supreme Court's Zadvydas v. Davis precedent.

A federal court TRO blocking the removal of an immigration detainee from a particular district carries procedural weight beyond the immediate facts. Under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, the federal habeas statute, the court with jurisdiction over the petitioner at the time of filing is the court that hears the case. Transferring a detainee out of the District of Alaska — most commonly to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, the regional ICE detention hub — would risk shifting the case to a different court while substantive claims remain unresolved.

The amended TRO does not decide the underlying petition; it preserves the status quo while the court works through the merits. Further filings, including the government's response and any scheduled hearings, will appear on the public docket as the case proceeds.