Court
W.D. La.
Decided
June 8, 2026
Docket
3:26-cv-01071-AVH-KDM (ECF No. 11)
Judge
Alexander C. Van Hook, District Judge.
Outcome
Interim relief denied
Disposition
Motion for a temporary restraining order denied. Motions for counsel to appear pro hac vice and to waive the local counsel requirement granted. The habeas petition referred to the magistrate judge for a recommendation.
Nationality
Citizen of Armenia. Entered the United States without inspection and applied for asylum; an immigration judge denied asylum and ordered him removed, but granted withholding of removal to Armenia because of a likelihood of persecution there for his political opinion.
Third country
Moldova. Enforcement and Removal Operations issued notice of its intent to remove him to Moldova.
The petitioner, an Armenian citizen, entered the United States without inspection and applied for asylum. An immigration judge denied asylum and ordered him removed, but granted “withholding of removal to Armenia” based on a likelihood of persecution there for his political opinion. The court recorded that Enforcement and Removal Operations then “issued notice of its intent to remove the Petitioner to a third-country, Moldova.”
He asked the court to stay his removal and preserve the status quo while his habeas petition was pending. The court denied the motion, applying the Fifth Circuit’s decision of 13 January 2026 in Imran v. Harper that a “request for stay of removal is a challenge to a removal order” over which the district court lacks “jurisdiction to grant such relief”.
It added that, although it had power to preserve existing conditions while it determined its own authority to grant injunctive relief, “the Petitioner has not alleged any sort of lawful status, and without such, the Court declines to grant him temporary relief.” It cited for comparison a decision of the Western District of Texas, Umanzor Maldonado v. Lyons (20 January 2026), which restrained removal during a habeas case where the person had deferred action status.
Caution
A denial of interim relief. On 9 June 2026 the court denied a renewed motion for a temporary restraining order without reasons (ECF No. 13). On 10 August 2026 the court, by Donald E. Walter, District Judge, considered the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation, to which no objections had been filed, and dismissed the petition “WITHOUT PREJUDICE AS MOOT” (ECF No. 18). The report and recommendation was not available and was not read. The documents read do not say why the petition became moot or whether the petitioner was removed to Moldova.
Four days after this order, Alhassan v. Perez (S.D. Tex. 12 June 2026), recorded in this register, distinguished Imran v. Harper and found jurisdiction over a due process challenge to removal to a third country without notice.
Third-country removal
Stay of removal
Jurisdiction 1252(g)
Withholding of removal
Temporary restraining order
Lawful status
The court's own text
Public copy
Read from the public federal court record.
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