8 U.S.C. § 1537 — Custody and release after removal hearing

(a) Release. (1) In general. Subject to paragraph (2), if the judge decides an alien should not be removed, the alien must be released. (2) Custody pending appeal. If the Attorney General appeals, the alien remains in custody subject to section 3142 of title 18. (b) Custody and removal. (1) Custody. If the judge decides an alien must be removed, the alien must be detained during any appeal. After judicial review affirming removal, the Attorney General must keep the alien in custody and remove the alien to a country under paragraph (2). (2) Removal. (A) In general. Removal must be to a country the alien designates if, in the Attorney General’s judgment after consulting the Secretary of State, that choice would not impair a United States treaty obligation, including an extradition treaty, or otherwise harm United States foreign policy. (B) Alternate countries. If the alien refuses to designate a country, or the Attorney General and Secretary of State determine the designated country would create either problem, the Attorney General must remove the alien to a country willing to receive the alien. (C) Continued detention. If no country will receive the alien, the Attorney General may keep the alien in custody despite any other law. With the Secretary of State, the Attorney General must periodically try to get another country to accept the alien and must give the alien’s removal-hearing attorney a written report at least every six months. Release is solely at the Attorney General’s discretion and subject to conditions the Attorney General considers appropriate. (D) Fingerprinting. Before removal under this subsection, or under an order based on inadmissibility under section 1182(a)(3)(B), the alien must be photographed and fingerprinted and told about section 1326(b). (c) Continued detention pending trial. (1) Delay in removal. The Attorney General may delay removal to allow trial on a Federal or State criminal charge and service of any resulting confinement sentence. (2) Maintaining custody. Until the alien begins serving that sentence, the alien remains in the Attorney General’s custody unless temporary release to State custody is appropriate and would not endanger national security or public safety. (3) Later removal. After the sentence ends, or after State proceedings end without a confinement sentence for an alien released to State custody, the alien must return to the Attorney General, who must proceed with removal. (d) Escape penalties. For sections 751 and 752 of title 18, an alien held by the Attorney General under this subchapter is subject to the penalties applying to a person held by the Attorney General after arrest on a felony charge. (e) Rights in custody. (1) Family and attorney visits. The alien must have a reasonable opportunity, as the Attorney General determines, to communicate with and receive visits from family and to contact, retain, and communicate with an attorney. (2) Diplomatic contact. The alien may contact an appropriate diplomatic or consular official of the country of citizenship or nationality, or of a country providing representation services for that country. The Attorney General must notify the appropriate embassy, mission, or consular office of the detention.