Niz-Chavez v. Barr
Issues
Must the government serve a “notice to appear” as defined by 8 U.S.C. § 1229(a), providing a noncitizen in removal proceedings with the required information about the proceedings, in a single document?
A notice to appear in accordance with 8 U.S.C. § 1229(a) triggers a stop-time rule that prevents noncitizens from accruing uninterrupted time spent in the United States—ten years of which makes a noncitizen eligible to cancel removal. The issue presented to the Supreme Court is whether the information required for a notice to appear must be included in a single document or whether it may be included in multiple documents. Agusto Niz-Chavez argues that the text and purpose of Section 1229(a) indicates that the required information must be included in a single notice and that the Court should not defer to the Board of Immigration Appeal’s (“Board”) interpretation of the statute. In contrast, Attorney General William Barr argues that the text and purpose of Section 1229(a) permits the government to issue notices to noncitizens across multiple documents and the Court should grant the Board deference. The outcome of this case has important implications for the procedural due process rights of immigrants subject to removal proceedings and the administrative burden of those proceedings on immigration courts and other government agencies.
Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties
Whether, to serve notice in accordance with 8 U.S.C. § 1229(a) and trigger the stop-time rule, the government must serve a specific document that includes all the information identified in Section 1229(a), or whether the government can serve that information over the course of as many documents and as much time as it chooses.
8 U.S.C. § 1229(a) requires that noncitizens in removal proceedings be served with a notice to appear. Pereira v. Sessions at 2109.
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Additional Resources
- Jennifer Doherty, Feds Tell Justices Two-Part Deportation Notices are Fine, Law360 (Sept. 28, 2020).
- Andrew R. Arthur, Supreme Court to Review Notices to Appear in the 42B Cancellation Context — Part Two, Center for Immigration Studies (Jun. 10, 2020).