UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

ANGEL PEDRAZA-ROMAN,
Petitioner-Appellant,

v.

WILLIAM J. CARROLL, District
                                                                    No. 97-7389
Director, Arlington District Office,
Immigration and Naturalization
Service,
Respondent-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria.
T. S. Ellis, III, District Judge.
(CA-97-1307-A)

Argued: December 1, 1998

Decided: January 5, 1999

Before WILLIAMS and MICHAEL, Circuit Judges, and
MICHAEL, Senior United States District Judge for the
Western District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

_________________________________________________________________

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

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COUNSEL

ARGUED: Michael Edward McKenzie, Arlington, Virginia, for
Appellant. David Michael McConnell, Assistant Director, Office of
Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPART-
MENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF:
Frank W. Hunger, Assistant Attorney General, H. Bradford Glass-
man, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, UNITED
STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for
Appellee.

_________________________________________________________________

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See
Local Rule 36(c).

_________________________________________________________________

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Angel Pedraza-Roman appeals the district court's denial of his
petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Pedraza-Roman entered the
United States illegally in 1990. In 1991 he failed to show up for his
deportation hearing and was ordered deported in absentia. Pedraza-
Roman lived in this country undetected until 1997, when he filed a
motion with the INS to reopen his deportation proceedings. In his
motion he claimed he had not had notice of his original deportation
hearing, although he admitted that he had learned of the outstanding
deportation order in 1993. Following Pedraza-Roman's filing with the
INS in 1997, the agency took him into custody and detained him
under the outstanding warrant for his deportation. An immigration
judge thereafter denied the motion to reopen. Pedraza-Roman then
filed a motion to reconsider the denial of this motion, which the
immigration judge also denied. Pedraza-Roman has appealed that
decision to the BIA, and the appeal is still pending.

While his administrative proceedings were ongoing, Pedraza-
Roman filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the
District of Columbia seeking a stay of deportation and release from
detention. That court granted him a stay of deportation but denied his
request for release. Pedraza-Roman then filed a petition for a writ of
habeas corpus in district court in the Eastern District of Virginia, chal-
lenging the length of his detention and disputing the INS's authority

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to detain him. The district court denied the writ after a hearing, and
Pedraza-Roman has appealed. After considering the briefs, the joint
appendix, and the oral arguments of counsel, we affirm on the reason-
ing of the district court. See Pedraza-Roman v. Carroll, No. 97-1307-
A (E.D. Va. Sept. 5, 1997) (hearing on motions).

AFFIRMED

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