Yesterday, April 29, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a decision in Niz-Chavez v. Garland, in which the Court considered the adequacy of a “Notice to Appear” to a deportation proceeding and whether it was legally adequate if the notice did not contain all of the required information, such a date and time of the hearing. A “Notice to Appear” is the official document that places a foreign national in deportation (removal) proceedings.
The justices decided that federal immigration law requires authorities to include all relevant details for a Notice to Appear for a hearing in one document rather than sending the information across multiple documents. While a technical issue, the ruling could affect hundreds of thousands of immigration cases. Justice Gorsuch delivered the opinion of the Court and was joined by the Court’s three liberal justices as well as conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett.
After the Supreme Court in 2018 found in another case (Pereira v. Sessions) that notices to appear that omitted the time and date of the hearing were deficient, Niz-Chavez cited his faulty notice to argue that the stop-time rule had not been triggered in his case.
The Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against him in 2019, saying that the relevant information can be sent in more than one document. The Supreme Court now overturned that ruling.
This ruling matters because it upends years of practice by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and will likely will slow down the number of people placed in immigration proceedings.
If you are in removal proceedings, check your Notice to Appear immediately. If your Notice to Appear does not contain date and time of the hearing, call your attorney ASAP as you may be able to terminate your removal proceedings following yesterday’s decision of the Supreme Court.
For further information, call (513) 334-3008.
