533US2
Unit: $U87
[10-21-02 18:35:10] PAGES PGT: OPIN
Cite as: 533 U. S. 678 (2001)
689
Opinion of the Court
gories “may be detained beyond the removal period and, if
released, shall be subject to [certain] terms of supervision.”
8 U. S. C. § 1231(a)(6) (1994 ed., Supp. V).
The Government argues that the statute means what it
literally says. It sets no “limit on the length of time beyond
the removal period that an alien who falls within one of the
Section 1231(a)(6) categories may be detained.” Brief for
Petitioners in No. 00–38, p. 22. Hence, “whether to continue
to detain such an alien and, if so, in what circumstances and
for how long” is up to the Attorney General, not up to the
courts. Ibid.
“[I]t is a cardinal principle” of statutory interpretation,
however, that when an Act of Congress raises “a serious
doubt” as to its constitutionality, “this Court will first ascertain whether a construction of the statute is fairly possible
by which the question may be avoided.” Crowell v. Benson,
285 U. S. 22, 62 (1932); see also United States v. X-Citement
Video, Inc., 513 U. S. 64, 78 (1994); United States v. Jin Fuey
Moy, 241 U. S. 394, 401 (1916); cf. Almendarez-Torres v.
United States, 523 U. S. 224, 238 (1998) (construction of statute that avoids invalidation best reflects congressional will).
We have read significant limitations into other immigration
statutes in order to avoid their constitutional invalidation.
See United States v. Witkovich, 353 U. S. 194, 195, 202 (1957)
(construing a grant of authority to the Attorney General to
ask aliens whatever questions he “deem[s] fit and proper”
as limited to questions “reasonably calculated to keep the
Attorney General advised regarding the continued availability for departure of aliens whose deportation is overdue”).
For similar reasons, we read an implicit limitation into the
statute before us. In our view, the statute, read in light of
the Constitution’s demands, limits an alien’s post-removalperiod detention to a period reasonably necessary to bring
about that alien’s removal from the United States. It does
not permit indefinite detention.