Kiyemba v. Obama (Kiyemba I)

Seventeen Chinese citizens who were ethnically Uighurs (plaintiffs) (the 17 petitioners) were labeled as enemy combatants and detained at the United States’ Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba based upon their alleged affiliation with the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, which the State Department classified as a terrorist organization. In Parhat v. Gates, 532 F.3d 834 (2008), the court determined that Huzaifa Parhat could not be detained as an enemy combatant, because the government lacked sufficient evidence proving that the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement either associated with al-Qaida or the Taliban or engaged in any hostile acts against the United States or its allies. The government (defendant) then determined that the 17 petitioners should not be detained as enemy combatants because the government’s evidence against the 17 petitioners was not stronger than its evidence against Parhat. However, there was no place to immediately release the 17 petitioners. The government could not return the 17 petitioners to China, where the petitioners feared that they would be arrested, tortured, or executed. The 17 petitioners did not take steps to comply with any immigration laws that would allow them to lawfully enter the United States. Thus, the government attempted to find another country that would accept the 17 petitioners while the 17 petitioners remained in limbo in the least restrictive conditions possible in the Guantánamo military base. The 17 petitioners filed habeas corpus petitions, requesting an order compelling their release into the United States. The district court granted that motion, and the government appealed.