Case: 20-60139 Document: 00516117005 Page: 1 Date Filed: 12/03/2021 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED December 3, 2021 No. 20-60139 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk Manoel Jose Spagnol-Bastos, Petitioner, versus Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General, Respondent. Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals BIA No. A077 692 312 Before Owen, Chief Judge, and Jones and Wilson, Circuit Judges. Per Curiam: Border Patrol agents apprehended and detained Manoel Spagnol- Bastos after he illegally entered this country. The next day, immigration officials released Spagnol-Bastos on bond and ordered him to provide an address at which the government could contact him regarding his removal hearing. He provided a deficient address and, as a result, did not receive notice of his removal hearing and failed to appear for it. An immigration court ordered him removed in absentia. Almost eighteen years later, he filed a motion to reopen the removal proceedings and to rescind the removal order on the basis that he never received notice of the proceedings. The Case: 20-60139 Document: 00516117005 Page: 2 Date Filed: 12/03/2021 No. 20-60139 immigration judge denied his motion, holding that Spagnol-Bastos forfeited his right to notice by failing to provide a viable address. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed. This court DENIES the petition for review. Background Twenty years ago, Manoel Spagnol-Bastos, a Brazilian citizen, waded across the Rio Grande into Texas. Border Patrol agents apprehended him and took him into custody. Immigration and Naturalization Service officers served him with a notice to appear (NTA), charging him as a removable alien not admitted or paroled into the United States under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). Among other things, the NTA advised Spagnol-Bastos that he must provide immigration officials with a current mailing address so the government could contact him regarding his impending removal hearing. Failure to do so carried a heavy penalty: If Spagnol-Bastos did not keep the government apprised of his mailing address, then the government need not give Spagnol-Bastos notice of his removal hearing. And if he did not show up, then the immigration court must order him removed in absentia. Spagnol- Bastos acknowledged on the NTA that immigration officials gave him oral notice, in his native language, of the consequences of failing to appear. The NTA did not say when the hearing would occur, but it told Spagnol-Bastos that he needed to appear at a time and date “to be set.” Immigration officials released Spagnol-Bastos on bond the next day. On his way out the door, Spagnol-Bastos allegedly told immigration officials that his address would be “102-169 F Apt 3C, Manhaion N.Y. N.Y. 10029.” A week later, an immigration official sent a Form I-830 with that information to the immigration court so the court could send Spagnol-Bastos notice of his hearing. Soon after, the immigration court mailed a notice of hearing to the address. But Spagnol-Bastos had given the government a deficient address 2 Case: 20-60139 Document: 00516117005 Page: 3 Date …
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