Gakou v. Warden of the Prairieland Detention Center

Abasse Gakou, a native of Senegal held in ICE custody and “set to be deported immediately to Sierra Leone”, had filed a habeas petition in the Northern District of Texas “challenging his continued detention and seeking an injunction against third-country removal pending further litigation of his Convention Against Torture claims.” The district court denied all relief and declined to stay his removal.

The court of appeals decided the motion on the first stay factor alone: “Because we determine that Gakou is deeply unlikely to prevail on the merits of his claims, we do not consider any of the three remaining factors.” Following its unpublished decision in Imran v. Harper (5th Cir. 13 January 2026), it treated a request for a stay of removal as falling “within the ambit of § 1252(g)’s jurisdiction-stripping effect” and concluded: “Therefore, we lack the power to entertain Gakou’s motion.”

Separately, it said that “the Supreme Court has effectively ratified third-country removal of the sort that Gakou faces when it granted certiorari in a case raising the issue while still explicitly permitting the government to continue with third-country removals unabated pending full resolution on the merits,” so that his “claim to an injunction against his removal to a country besides Senegal is unavailing and cannot be used to support the stay he currently seeks.”

Caution A ruling on an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal, not a decision of the appeal. The court designated it a published order. Having said that it lacked the power to entertain the motion, it also denied the motion because Gakou had not “demonstrated any meaningful probability of success on the merits.” The reading of the Supreme Court’s order of 29 September 2026 is the panel’s own: that order, recorded in this register, gives no reasons. The class counsel practice advisory of 21 October 2026, which cites this order as 2026 WL 3044209, disputes it: “An unexplained emergency stay ruling does not establish that the government is likely to prevail on the merits.” The order does not mention the assurance Sierra Leone gave the United States, or Roberts v. De Anda-Ybarra (W.D. Tex. 22 May 2026), recorded in this register. For a stay sought in a habeas case that challenges detention without contesting the removal order, the Tenth Circuit said on 21 October 2026, in Abedi v. Carter, recorded in this register, that “§ 1252 is not implicated by a request for a temporary injunction to stay a detainee’s removal during the pendency of a habeas proceeding challenging the legality of the detention without contesting the underlying removal order.” The Western District of Louisiana relied on this order, with Imran v. Harper, in Emetazi v. Warden (22 October 2026), also recorded here. Gakou moved for reconsideration on 11 October 2026, which was denied on 14 October, and on 26 October moved to vacate the order of 10 October, with a response due on 5 November 2026. No ruling on that motion appears in the docket entries available on CourtListener, the latest of which is dated 26 October 2026. Whether he was removed to Sierra Leone is not recorded there.

Third-country removal Stay of removal Jurisdiction 1252(g) D.V.D. class action CAT Habeas jurisdiction Contrary authority

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