UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION

JOSE LUIS VELAZQUEZ VELAZQUEZ,

Petitioner, Case No. 25-cv-13675 v. Honorable Robert J. White KEVIN RAYCRAFT, et al.,

Respondents.

ORDER TO AMEND THE PETITION AND SERVE THE PROPER RESPONDENT

Petitioner Jose Luis Velazquez Velazquez filed for a writ of habeas corpus under

. (ECF No. 1, PageID.5). Velazquez alleged that Respondents have detained him without a bond hearing in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), and that his continued detention without a hearing violates his Fifth Amendment right to Due Process. (Id. at PageID.21–24). Velazquez is currently detained at the Monroe County Jail in Monroe, Michigan. (ECF No. 6-2, PageID.93). Monroe County Jail is part of the Eastern District of Michigan. See

(a)(1). Per the parties’ stipulation, Velazquez’s petition is now fully briefed.1 (ECF No. 8; ECF No. 9; ECF No. 10). As Respondents noted in their response, a writ of

habeas corpus may only be issued “to the person having custody of the person detained.”

. (ECF No. 9, PageID.107). Except in extraordinary circumstances, the “default rule” for habeas challenges to present physical

confinement “is that the proper respondent is the warden of the facility where the prisoner is being held, not the Attorney General or some other remote supervisory official.” Rumsfeld v. Padilla,

(2004) (emphasis added); see also

(“In challenges to present physical confinement, we reaffirm that the

immediate custodian, not a supervisory official who exercises legal control, is the proper respondent.”). Here, the proper respondent is therefore the warden of Monroe County Jail, and not any of the Respondents that Velazquez named in his petition.2

Accordingly,

1 The parties stipulated to allow Respondents to respond to the petition by December 4, 2025 and gave Velazquez until December 10, 2025 to submit his reply. (ECF No. 8, PageID.95). 2 See Aguilar v. Dunbar, --- F. Supp. 3d ---, No. 25-cv-12831,

, at *3 (E.D. Mich. Nov. 13, 2025) (finding that the only proper respondent was the warden of the facility where petitioner was detained); see also Badjie v. Raycraft, No. 25-cv-13404,

, at *2 (E.D. Mich. Dec. 9, 2025) (same). IT IS ORDERED that Velazquez must amend the petition to name the proper respondent, the warden of the Monroe County Jail, and serve that respondent within

14 days from the entry of this Order. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that failure to name and serve the proper respondent within 14 days of the Court’s order will result in the Court’s dismissal of

the petition.

Dated: December 10, 2025 s/Robert J. White Robert J. White United States District Judge