A major decision by the Supreme Court in June 2018 affects any applicants who are currently in deportation or removal proceedings. On June 21, 2018, The Supreme Court issued a decision in Pereira v Sessions which could potentially benefit thousands of immigrants who are or were in removal proceedings, or who have been ordered deported from the United States.
When someone is placed in removal proceedings, they are issued a document called a Notice to Appear (NTA). This document usually did not tell the person when to appear for their hearing date because the immigration court’s schedule was so backlogged that they didn’t know when the court could see them. So the immigration officer would simply write “To be set” on the NTA. The Supreme Court’s decision in the Pereira case now states that those NTA documents are probably invalid. If you are in removal proceedings now, you could get your removal proceedings terminated. If you were ordered deported, even many years ago, because you didn’t know about your hearing date, you could get your case reopened and terminated. If your NTA does not have a hearing date on it, but instead states “To be Set” in the space where they should be giving you a date (near the bottom of the first page), please contact me or any other immigration attorney and you may be able to reopen your case.
Everyone that was placed into deportation or removal proceedings was issued an NTA. Many people never received a copy of their NTA or no longer have it. That is OK. We can always get a copy of the NTA from the immigration court where your case is being heard or was decided. If you have a copy of your NTA, you can send me a copy of it and I can tell you if your case is eligible to be reopened. Not everyone’s case is eligible to be reopened. That is why I need to see the NTA for each person to be sure whether I can help them.