On September 15, 1981, two Cuban nationals who were confined in at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They claimed that their applications for asylum had been unreasonably delayed ...
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On September 15, 1981, two Cuban nationals who were confined in at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They claimed that their applications for asylum had been unreasonably delayed.
On October 16, 1981, the District Court (Thomas A. Flannery) denied their petition. The District Court cited the arrival of approximately 125,000 Cubans in Key West, Florida, in mid-1980 ("Freedom Flotilla arrivals" as placing an extreme strain on the INS. Plaintiffs appealed.
On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit noted that one of the plaintiffs had been granted parole status and the other was detained in Bureau of Prison facility, under the Department of Justice review plan for "Freedom Flotilla" arrivals. As plaintiffs' circumstances since filing their petition had changed, the Appeals Court determined that their habeas corpus applications were moot. The case was remanded to the District Court with a direction to dismiss plaintiffs' petition Alonso-Martinez v. Meissner, 697 F.2d 1160 (D.C. 1983).
Miles Chan - 08/02/2007
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