The petitioner entered the United States in December 2005 at the age of eleven. Earlier in his removal case an immigration judge found him not competent to represent himself and a qualified representative was assigned. On 11 September 2025 an immigration judge ordered him removed to Iran and granted him deferral of removal to Iran under Article III of the Convention Against Torture. He was detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. According to the government, immediately after the removal order ICE began “efforts to identify a third country for Petitioner’s removal,” and was “currently determining whether Canada, Mexico, or the United Kingdom, will accept Petitioner.” The government also said he had refused to cooperate with removal efforts and had received multiple failure to depart warnings. The government acknowledged that the presumptively reasonable six-month period had lapsed. The court held that the government’s statements about a third country “alone do not automatically render Petitioner’s removal” reasonably foreseeable, and that the government did not provide “any specific evidence or other information on what steps they have taken, or imminently intend to take, to effectuate Petitioner’s removal and ensure that he is not indefinitely detained.” On cooperation, it found that the government did “fail to identify how Petitioner has purportedly refused to cooperate with ICE, let alone how such a refusal has contributed to the delay.” The court ordered release within 72 hours, declining to prohibit GPS monitoring. It barred re-detention “unless and until he is provided with adequate notice and a hearing before an immigration court to determine whether re-detention is appropriate,” and barred removal to a third country “unless and until he is provided with adequate notice and a meaningful opportunity to respond, in accordance with all applicable laws.” Because it granted relief on prolonged detention, it did not reach the arguments on procedural due process, fear of removal and “punitive third-country banishment.”
Caution A district court decision, binding only on the parties. The court decided the petition on prolonged detention alone and expressly did not reach the claims on procedural due process, fear of removal or punitive third-country removal. The third-country protection it ordered is adequate notice and a meaningful opportunity to respond; unlike several other orders from this district in the register, it does not specify reopened proceedings before an immigration judge. The statements about the petitioner’s refusal to cooperate are the government’s, and the court found them unsupported. The copy has no electronic filing stamp; the date given is the date the judge signed the order. The court’s docket heading on the copy reads “Babakhanlou v. Bondi et al”, but the caption of the order names Todd Blanche as first respondent.
CAT deferral Third-country removal Prolonged detention (Zadvydas) Redetention Pre-deprivation hearing Notice Travel documents
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