Urvashi Patel v. Jefferson Sessions, III


NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION File Name: 18a0345n.06 Nos. 17-4277/4278 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT MUKESHKUMAR VENABHAI PATEL ) FILED (17-4277); URVASHI MUKESH PATEL ) Jul 13, 2018 (17-4278), ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Petitioners, ) ) v. ) ) JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS, III, Attorney ) General ) ON PETITION FOR REVIEW OF ) AN ORDER OF THE BOARD OF Respondent. ) IMMIGRATION APPEALS ) OPINION Before: BATCHELDER, MOORE, and LARSEN, Circuit Judges. KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. This immigration case centers around a typographic error from 1997. Immigration proceedings were commenced against Mukeshkumar Venabhai Patel (“Mr. Patel”) and Urvashi Mukesh Patel (“Mrs. Patel”) (collectively, “the Patels”) early that year after they were discovered to have entered the country with false passports. The address for the Patels that immigration officials recorded was missing an “i,” however, and two subsequent hearing notices sent to that address were returned without delivery. After the Patels failed to appear for the hearings, deportation orders were issued in their absence. In 2016, the Patels filed motions to reopen the proceedings against them, claiming insufficient notice. An Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denied their motions, and the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) dismissed their appeals and then denied further motions to reopen and reconsider. The Patels now Nos. 17-4277/4278, Patel et ux. v. Sessions petition this court to review those most recent denials by the BIA. In light of a significant ambiguity in the BIA’s stated rationale, we VACATE and REMAND. I. BACKGROUND The facts of this case are not materially in dispute. The Patels are citizens of India. A.R. I at 2070 (Record of Deportable Alien at 1); A.R. II at 403 (Record of Deportable Alien at 1).1 They entered the United States using false passports in 1996. Id. On February 28, 1997, they encountered agents of what was then the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”)—now the Department of Homeland Security—at a bus station in Detroit, Michigan. Id. Upon questioning, they revealed the false entry to the INS. Id. The INS accordingly began to process the Patels for potential deportation. Id. Although Mr. Patel “stated that he underst[ood] verbal and written English” during the encounter, the INS also enlisted a translator; the two of them helped to translate for Mrs. Patel. A.R. I at 2071 (Record of Deportable Alien at 2). With the help of the translator, the INS informed the Patels of their rights and presented each of them personally that day with an Order to Show Cause and Notice of Hearing (“OSC”) that would be filed with the Immigration Court and thus formally commence deportation proceedings against them. See id.; A.R. I at 2081–85 (OSC); A.R. II at 415–19 (OSC). The Patels were told, and the OSCs reiterated, that the Patels were obligated by law to keep the INS informed of their current address. A.R. I at 2071 (Record of Deportable 1 Because this consolidated petition for review involves two administrative records, we refer to the record in the first-filed ...

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