Morteza Zakeri entered the United States as a refugee in 2017 and became a lawful permanent resident in 2019. After a December 2023 criminal conviction, ICE arrested him at a North Carolina probation office in June 2024. An immigration judge ordered him removed to Afghanistan or, alternatively, Iran. He has been held at California City Corrections Center ever since — nearly eighteen months since his arrest, and three times the six-month period the Supreme Court in Zadvydas v. Davis identified as presumptively reasonable.
The government's efforts to remove Zakeri were unsuccessful. ICE submitted a request for an Afghan transportation letter in October 2024; Afghanistan denied it for "unknown reasons" on July 8, 2025. A second request, filed on or about July 8, 2025, remained pending for nine months with no adjudication date in sight. ICE made no documented effort to secure travel documents to Iran or any other country.
The Eastern District of California magistrate judge, presiding by consent, held that Zakeri satisfied the Zadvydas "good reason to believe" standard based on the length of detention, the failed first request, and the stalled second one. The court then held that the government failed to rebut that showing. Citing its prior decisions in Pham v. Warden and Hoac v. Becerra, as well as Yang-Ling X v. Lyona, the court held that a sworn declaration noting only that a second travel-document request was pending — without explaining why the first was denied, how the second differed, or when a decision was expected — was insufficient. The court also rejected the government's reliance on its May 2025 custody review under 8 C.F.R. § 241.4, holding that provision irrelevant because it does not assess likelihood of removal, which is the operative Zadvydas inquiry.
On the third-country removal claim, the government argued the issue was speculative and that an injunction was unnecessary because it intended to follow Ninth Circuit authority requiring notice before third-country removal. The court was unpersuaded, noting that without an injunction nothing would prevent the government from releasing Zakeri, re-detaining him in another jurisdiction, and removing him under unconstitutional procedures. The court adopted the reasoning from Pham and Nguyen v. Warden of Golden State Annex Detention Facility and permanently enjoined removal to any third country unless the government first gives Zakeri and his counsel at least ten days to raise a fear-based claim, moves to reopen proceedings if reasonable fear is shown, and provides at least fifteen days to seek reopening if reasonable fear is not found.
The court ordered Zakeri's immediate release under supervision conditions set forth in 8 C.F.R. § 241.5, directed return of his documents and possessions, and required the government to file a notice of compliance within three days.