533US2
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[10-21-02 18:35:10] PAGES PGT: OPIN
ZADVYDAS v. DAVIS
Opinion of the Court
silence, Immigration Act of 1917, ch. 29, §§ 19, 20, 39 Stat.
889, 890, to mean that deportation-related detention must
end within a reasonable time, Spector v. Landon, 209 F. 2d
481, 482 (CA9 1954) (collecting cases); United States ex rel.
Doukas v. Wiley, 160 F. 2d 92, 95 (CA7 1947); United States
ex rel. Ross v. Wallis, 279 F. 401, 403–404 (CA2 1922),
to a period (from the early 1950’s through the late 1980’s)
when the statutes permitted, but did not require, postdeportation-order detention for up to six months, Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, § 242(c), 66 Stat. 210, 8
U. S. C. §§ 1252(c), (d) (1982 ed.); Witkovich, 353 U. S., at 198,
to more recent statutes that have at times mandated and at
other times permitted the post-deportation-order detention
of aliens falling into certain categories such as aggravated
felons, Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, § 7343(a), 102 Stat.
4470, 8 U. S. C. § 1252(a)(2) (mandating detention); Immigration Act of 1990, § 504(a), 104 Stat. 5049–5050, 8 U. S. C.
§§ 1252(a)(2)(A), (B) (permitting release under certain circumstances); Miscellaneous and Technical Immigration and
Naturalization Amendments of 1991, § 306(a)(4), 105 Stat.
1751, 8 U. S. C. § 1252(a)(2)(B) (same).
In early 1996, Congress explicitly expanded the group of
aliens subject to mandatory detention, eliminating provisions
that permitted release of criminal aliens who had at one time
been lawfully admitted to the United States. Antiterrorism
and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, § 439(c), 110 Stat.
1277. And later that year Congress enacted the present
law, which liberalizes pre-existing law by shortening the removal period from six months to 90 days, mandates detention
of certain criminal aliens during the removal proceedings
and for the subsequent 90-day removal period, and adds the
post-removal-period provision here at issue. Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996,
Div. C, §§ 303, 305, 110 Stat. 3009–585, 3009–598 to 3009–599;
8 U. S. C. §§ 1226(c), 1231(a) (1994 ed., Supp. V).