Research Note
Researched
Kansas — Judge Lungstrum's Zadvydas Habeas Releases (23+ Detainees)
KS
Overview
U.S. District Judge John W. Lungstrum (District of Kansas, Kansas City) has become a structural judicial check on indefinite ICE detention in Kansas, issuing at least 23 habeas corpus orders releasing detainees between August 14, 2025 and April 1, 2026. The orders apply the Supreme Court’s Zadvydas v. Davis standard: detention beyond six months requires the government to show that removal remains “reasonably foreseeable.” Lungstrum repeatedly found the government failed to provide that evidence.
Key Details
- Judge: John W. Lungstrum, U.S. District Court, District of Kansas (Kansas City, KS — Wyandotte County, FIPS 20209)
- Legal basis: Habeas corpus petitions; Zadvydas v. Davis (2001) six-month presumptive limit on post-removal-order detention
- Volume: 23+ release orders, Aug. 14, 2025 – April 1, 2026
- Facilities involved: Chase County jail (Cottonwood Falls, Chase County, FIPS 20017) and the federal prison / CoreCivic facility in Leavenworth (FIPS 20103)
- Judge’s finding: “repeated complaints” about “the absence of such analysis or explanation” — i.e., the government detained people past six months without documenting removal efforts
Why It Matters
- Counterweight to HB 2372: Kansas just enacted (over veto) a law authorizing sheriffs to hold people on ICE detainers without criminal charges (see kansas-287g-explosion). Lungstrum’s orders show federal courts pushing back on the indefinite-detention end of that pipeline.
- Explains the slow Leavenworth ramp: CoreCivic’s Midwest Regional Reception Center held only ~240-249 detainees two months after opening, well under its 1,104 cap. Habeas releases plus the Chase County bottleneck are part of why Kansas detention capacity has not filled as fast as projected.
- Replicable defense tactic: A single district judge clearing a recurring backlog of >6-month detainees is a model other jurisdictions’ immigration bars can cite.