Full Opinion
FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 21-30177
Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No.
V. 3:19-cr-00408-
IM-1
LEOPOLDO RIVERA-VALDES,
Defendant-Appellant. OPINION
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Oregon
Karin J. Immergut, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted En Bane March 19, 2025
San Francisco, California
Filed September 18, 2025
Before: Mary H. Murguia, Chief Judge, and Ronald M.
Gould, Consuelo M. Callahan, Milan D. Smith, Jr., Sandra
S. Ikuta, Mark J. Bennett, Eric D. Miller, Danielle J.
Forrest, Gabriel P. Sanchez, Holly A. Thomas and Roopali
H. Desai, Circuit Judges.
Opinion by Judge Sanchez;
Dissent by Judge Bennett, joined by Judges Callahan and
Ikuta, with whom Judges Miller and Forrest join as to Parts
I1.B and IV only;
2 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
Dissent by Judge Forrest, joined by Judge Miller.
SUMMARY*
Criminal Law / Due Process / Removal
The en banc court vacated the district court’s denial of
Leopoldo Rivera-Valdes’s motion to dismiss an indictment
alleging that he reentered the United States following
deportation in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326, and remanded
for further proceedings, in a case in which Rivera-Valdes
asserts that the underlying removal order was invalid
because he was not afforded “reasonably calculated” notice
of his removal hearing when the Government learned that its
notice sent by certified mail was returned unclaimed.
The en banc court held that the notice afforded to
noncitizens subject to removal is governed by the due
process standards articulated in Mu/lane v. Central Hanover
Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306 (1950), and Jones v.
Flowers, 547 U.S. 220 (2006). Notice by the Government
must be reasonably calculated to apprise noncitizens of the
pendency of removal proceedings and to afford them the
opportunity to be present and to participate. The notice must
be of such nature as to reasonably convey the required
information, and it must afford a reasonable time for those
interested to make their appearance. Where the Government
learns that its notice efforts have not succeeded, that
knowledge triggers an obligation on the Government’s part
* This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has
been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader.
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 3
to take additional reasonable steps to effect notice, if it is
practicable to do so. Notice is not “reasonably calculated”
under the circumstances when the Government knows its
method of service was ineffective and takes no additional
steps that are reasonably available to it.
The en banc court rejected the Government’s arguments
that even if Jones applies to removal proceedings, its notice
to Rivera-Valdes satisfied due process. First, Jones
forecloses the Government’s contention that by fulfilling its
statutory notice obligations imposed by the Immigration and
Nationality Act, it necessarily satisfied its constitutional due
process obligations. Second, Rivera-Valdes did not receive
constitutionally adequate notice simply by being personally
served with an order to show cause conveying that a
deportation hearing may be scheduled at some unknown
point in the future. Third, the Government’s premise that
Rivera-Valdes forfeited his due process claim by not
updating his address with the agency is not established by
the record, and failure to comply with a statutory obligation
to keep his address updated would not, in any event, forfeit
his right to constitutionally sufficient notice.
The en banc court concluded that under Jones, the
appropriate remedy is to remand to allow the district court to
determine if the agency had other practicable alternatives
through which to attempt notice on Rivera-Valdes. And even
if Rivera-Valdes establishes a due process violation, he must
demonstrate that he is entitled to relief under the other
prongs of collateral attack under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(d)—
prejudice, administrative exhaustion, and deprivation of
judicial review. The district court left these questions
undecided, and the en banc court declined to consider them
in the first instance.
4 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
Judge Bennett, joined by Judges Callahan and Ikuta, and
joined in part by Judges Miller and Forrest, dissented. He
wrote that (1) the Constitution required nothing more where
the Immigration and Naturalization Service served Rivera-
Valdes with an order to show cause, informed him in person
of an upcoming deportation hearing, confirmed his current
address, instructed him to notify the immigration court
within five days of an address change, served him via regular
mail the motion to schedule a hearing, and sent him via
certified mail a notice that his hearing had been in fact
scheduled; (2) even after the mailed notices were returned,
there were no further “additional reasonable steps” that the
government was constitutionally required to undertake; and
(3) Rivera-Valdes cannot meet his burden of showing a due
process violation or resulting prejudice, which is required
under § 1326(d) for collateral attacks on removal orders.
Judge Forrest, joined by Judge Miller, dissented. She
agreed that Jones applies to immigration proceedings and,
therefore, when the government learned that its attempt to
notify Rivera-Valdes of his removal hearing failed, it was
required to take additional reasonable steps to attempt to
provide notice of the hearing to Rivera-Valdes, if practicable
to do so. But under the facts presented here, there were no
such steps available to the government. In addition, Rivera-
Valdes cannot satisfy other requirements for collaterally
attacking his removal order. Accordingly, she disagreed with
the majority’s decision to vacate the district court’s denial of
Rivera-Valdes’s motion to dismiss his indictment.
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 5
COUNSEL
Sarah Barr (argued), Assistant United States Attorney; Amy
E. Potter and Suzanne Miles, Appellate Chiefs; Scott E.
Asphaug, United States Attorney; Office of the United States
Attorney, United States Department of Justice, Portland,
Oregon; for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Stephen R. Sady (argued), Assistant Federal Public
Defender, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Portland,
Oregon; Kimberly-Claire E. Seymour, Assistant Federal
Public Defender, Office of the Federal Public Defender,
Eugene, Oregon; for Defendant-Appellant.
Katrina L. Eiland, Cecilia Wang, and Noelle Smith,
American Civil Liberties Union, San Francisco, California;
Sidra Mahfooz, American Civil Liberties Union, New York,
New York; Kelly K. Simon, ACLU Foundation of Oregon,
Portland, Oregon; Stephen Manning and Jordan Cunnings,
Innovation Law Lab, Portland, Oregon; for Amici Curiae
American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Oregon, and
Innovation Law Lab.
6 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
OPINION
SANCHEZ, Circuit Judge:
Seventy-five years ago in Mullane v. Central Hanover
Bank & Trust Co., the Supreme Court stated that an
“elementary and fundamental requirement” of due process is
“notice reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances,
to apprise interested parties of the pendency of the action and
afford them an opportunity to present their objections.” 339
U.S. 306, 314 (1950). In Jones v. Flowers, the Supreme
Court explained that one such circumstance is knowledge on
the Government’s part that its attempt to provide notice has
failed. 547 U.S. 220, 225 (2006). Accordingly, under the
Mullane-Jones due process analysis, when the Government
learns that its notice effort has not succeeded, this knowledge
triggers an obligation on the Government’s part to take
additional reasonable steps to effect notice, if it is practicable
to do so. Id.
Defendant-Appellant Leopoldo Rivera-Valdes (“Rivera-
Valdes”) challenges the district court’s denial of his motion
to dismiss an indictment alleging that he reentered the
United States following deportation in violation of 8 U.S.C.
§ 1326. Rivera-Valdes asserts that the underlying removal
order was invalid because he was not afforded “reasonably
calculated” notice of his removal hearing when the
Government learned that its notice sent by certified mail was
returned unclaimed. Because the district court did not apply
the governing standard set forth in Jones, we vacate the
district court’s denial of Rivera-Valdes’s motion to dismiss
the indictment and remand for further proceedings.
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 7
I.
Rivera-Valdes is a native and citizen of Mexico who
unlawfully entered the United States in 1992. In December
1993, he filed an asylum application with the Immigration
and Naturalization Service (“INS” or “agency”) that falsely
asserted he was a citizen of Guatemala and had suffered
persecution. The parties agree the asylum application listed
the following as his address: Leopoldo Rivera- Valdes, 4037
N. Cleveland Ave., Portland, OR 97212 (“Cleveland Avenue
address”). Rivera-Valdes acknowledges that the Cleveland
Avenue address is the only address he provided to the
agency.
In January 1994, the INS sent a notice acknowledging
receipt by regular mail to the Cleveland Avenue address.
The following month, the INS mailed Rivera-Valdes notices
approving the application and inviting him to retrieve his
work authorization papers. When Rivera-Valdes arrived to
retrieve his work authorization papers, INS officials told him
that they knew the Guatemalan identity he presented was
false. He immediately admitted to having purchased a false
birth certificate and false paperwork, and withdrew his
application for asylum. During this visit, the INS personally
served Rivera-Valdes with an Order to Show Cause
(“OSC”). The OSC stated that Rivera-Valdes would be
subsequently notified of the date, time, and place of the
hearing which would determine if he was deportable. It
stated that the hearing would be calendared and notice would
be mailed to the address he had last provided on his asylum
application. The OSC further explained that he must inform
the agency of any change of address and that if he failed to
appear at his hearing after receiving written notice of the
date, time, and location of the hearing, the immigration judge
could order him deported in absentia. The OSC listed
8 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
Rivera-Valdes’s address as 4037 N. Cleveland, Portland,
OR, 97212, omitting “Ave.” from the address Rivera-Valdes
had provided the agency. Rivera-Valdes does not dispute
that the OSC was read to him in his native language of
Spanish.
On April 20, 1994, the INS filed the OSC with the
Immigration Court and moved to schedule the case for a
hearing. A copy of the OSC was sent by regular mail to 4037
N. Cleveland, Portland, OR 97212, and was returned as “not
deliverable as addressed unable to forward” by the postal
service. On April 25, 1994, the Immigration Court sent a
notice of hearing by certified mail to 4037 N. Cleveland,
Portland, OR 97212, providing the date, time, and location
of the hearing. The hearing notice was stamped “returned to
sender’ and “UNCLAIMED.”! The word “Ave.” was
omitted from both unsuccessful mailings. The notice of
hearing was sent only once, by certified mail. The INS took
no other steps to notify Rivera-Valdes of the date, time, and
location of his removal hearing.
Four months later, in August 1994, the Immigration
Court held a removal hearing and ordered Rivera-Valdes
deported in absentia.? The record does not indicate whether
the INS informed the Immigration Court that the mailings
had gone unclaimed, though it is uncontested that the INS
received the returned, unclaimed notice of hearing. Rivera-
Valdes was removed in 2006. He later returned to the United
States and, in 2019, was detained under the 1994 removal
1 Rivera-Valdes contends this means the addressee abandoned or failed
to call for mail.
2 At the time of the hearing, both the INS and the Immigration Court
were within the Department of Justice. See About the Office, U.S. Dep’t
Just., https://perma.cc/EGH6-YUS3.
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 9
order and charged with one count of illegal reentry under 8
U.S.C. § 1326(a).
Rivera-Valdes conditionally pled guilty to illegal
reentry, and moved to dismiss the indictment, asserting that
the underlying removal order was invalid because he had not
received adequate notice of the removal hearing. See id.
§ 1326(d). The district court, reaching only the due process
challenge, held that the removal order was valid and denied
the motion to dismiss. The district court reasoned that the
Government’s notice of hearing was “reasonably calculated”
to reach Rivera- Valdes when it was sent by certified mail to
the last known address listed on his asylum application. The
district court observed that Rivera-Valdes was not entitled to
actual notice of his hearing and that he had been warned of
his obligation to apprise the agency of any change of
address. The district court rejected Rivera-Valdes’s
contention that the address listed on the notice of hearing did
not exist, noting that he had previously received mail from
the Government at that address. The district court did not
address the omission of the word “Ave.” from the Cleveland
Avenue address or the agency learning that the certified
mailing of the hearing notice had gone unclaimed.
Rivera-Valdes timely appealed. A divided three-judge
panel of our court held that Jones did not apply in the context
of immigration proceedings and affirmed the district court’s
decision. See United States v. Rivera-Valdes, 105 F.4th
1118 (9th Cir. 2024) (per curiam), reh’g en banc granted,
125 F.4th 991 (9th Cir. 2025). Upon the vote of a majority
of non-recused active judges, we granted rehearing en banc
and vacated the three-judge panel decision.
10 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
IL.
A defendant may collaterally attack the removal order
underlying an indictment under 8 U.S.C. § 1326 by arguing
that the proceeding which produced the order violated his
Fifth Amendment right to due process. See United States v.
Mendoza-Lopez, 481 U.S. 828, 839 (1987); see also United
States vy. Melendez-Castro, 671 F.3d 950, 953 (9th Cir.
2012). To prevail, a defendant must show that (1) he
exhausted administrative remedies for the removal order,
(2) the deportation proceedings improperly deprived him of
an opportunity for non-administrative judicial review, and
(3) the removal order was fundamentally unfair. 8 U.S.C.
§ 1326(d); see also United States v. Palomar-Santiago, 593
U.S. 321, 324-25 (2021). An underlying removal order is
fundamentally unfair if the defendant’s due process rights
were violated in the removal proceeding and the defendant
suffered prejudice as a result. United States v. Martinez, 786
F.3d 1227, 1230 (9th Cir. 2015). We have jurisdiction under
28 U.S.C. § 1291. “We review de novo the denial of a
motion to dismiss an indictment under 8 U.S.C. § 1326 when
the motion is based on alleged due process defects in an
underlying deportation proceeding.” Martinez, 786 F.3d at
1229-30 (quoting United States v. Alvarado-Pineda, 774
F.3d 1198, 1201 (9th Cir. 2014)).
Rivera- Valdes contends that his right to due process was
violated in the underlying removal proceeding because the
agency did not use means reasonably calculated to notify
him of his hearing when it sent notice of his hearing by
certified mail, learned the notice had gone unclaimed, and
took no additional reasonable steps to effectuate notice.
Rivera-Valdes further asserts that the Supreme Court’s
decision in Jones is controlling and that the district court
erred when it relied on pre-Jones circuit authority that did
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 11
not address the Government’s due process obligations when
it becomes aware that mailed notice has been returned
unclaimed.
The Government does not meaningfully dispute Rivera-
Valdes’s factual assertions nor his constitutional right to
reasonably calculated notice. Instead, the Government
contends that Jones’s “additional reasonable steps”
requirement does not apply in the context of immigration
removal proceedings. The Government further argues that
even if Jones does apply to immigration removal
proceedings, sending notice to Rivera-Valdes by certified
mail was sufficient for various reasons discussed below. In
short, the parties dispute whether notice was reasonably
calculated under the circumstances presented here?
A.
We begin with foundational precedent. In Mullane, the
Supreme Court held that “[a]n elementary and fundamental
requirement of due process in any proceeding which is to be
3 Although Rivera-Valdes did not cite Jones in his motion to dismiss,
the parties agree that he did not forfeit his due process claim on appeal.
“Our traditional rule is that “‘[o]nce a federal claim is properly presented,
a party can make any argument in support of that claim; parties are not
limited to the precise arguments they made below.’” Lebron v. Nat’l
R.R. Passenger Corp., 513 U.S. 374, 379 (1995) (alteration in original)
(quoting Yee v. Escondido, 503 U.S. 519, 534 (1992)); see also Singh v.
Garland, 118 F.4th 1150, 1165 (th Cir. 2024) (“[T]he court is not
limited to the particular legal theories advanced by the parties, [and]
retains the independent power to identify and apply the proper
construction of governing law.” (quoting Kamen v. Kemper Fin. Servs.,
Inc., 500 U.S. 90, 99 (1991))). Because Rivera-Valdes challenged
whether the notice of hearing was “reasonably calculated” to reach him
in accordance with his due process rights, and the district court addressed
and denied the substance of his due process claim, his challenge has been
preserved for our review.
12 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
accorded finality is notice reasonably calculated, under all
the circumstances, to apprise interested parties of the
pendency of the action and afford them an opportunity to
present their objections.” 339 U.S. at 314. Therefore, “[t]he
means employed [to provide such notice] must be such as
one desirous of actually informing the absentee might
reasonably adopt to accomplish it.” /d. at 315. In assessing
the adequacy of a given form of notice, we must also balance
the “interest of the State” against “the individual interest
sought to be protected... .” Jd. at 314.
In a series of cases following Mullane, the Court
elaborated on the principle that “notice must be reasonably
calculated to inform parties of proceedings which may
directly and adversely affect their legally protected
interests.” Walker v. City of Hutchinson, 352 U.S. 112, 115
(1956). In Walker, the Court explained that because it is
impossible to establish a “rigid formula” for the type of
notice that must be given, the “notice required will vary with
circumstances and conditions.” /d. The Court held that a
notice of condemnation published in a local newspaper fell
“short of the requirements of due process” in circumstances
where the interested landowner’s name and information
were known to city officials and notice by mail to him was
reasonable. /d. at 116.
That same year, the Court held in Covey v. Town of
Somers that notice of a tax foreclosure by mailing, posting,
and publication was inadequate where town officials were
aware that the property owner was not competent to manage
her own affairs and lacked a guardian to protect her. 351
U.S. 141, 146-47 (1956). Then, in Robinson v. Hanrahan,
the Court held that notice of a forfeiture proceeding mailed
to a vehicle owner’s home address was not reasonably
calculated where the state knew that the owner was in jail
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 13
and unlikely to receive it. 409 U.S. 38, 40 (1972) (per
curiam).
Finally, in Greene v. Lindsey, the Court held that eviction
notices posted on tenants’ doorways in a multi-tenant
building were constitutionally deficient where process
servers knew that the notices were being torn down by
children and others. 456 U.S. 444, 453-56 (1982). Greene
explained that “[t]he sufficiency of notice must be tested
with reference to its ability to inform people of the pendency
of proceedings that affect their interests.” Jd. at 451.
Whatever the efficacy of posting notice in other cases, the
Court concluded that the “State’s continued exclusive
reliance on an ineffective means of service is not notice
‘reasonably calculated to reach those who could easily be
informed by other means at hand.’” /d. at 455-56 (quoting
Mullane, 339 U.S. at 319).
As the Supreme Court’s application of Mullane across
many cases reflects, whether notice is reasonably calculated
“will vary with [the] circumstances and conditions” of a
particular case, Walker, 352 U.S. at 115, and notice
“require[s] the government to consider unique information
about an intended recipient regardless of whether a statutory
scheme is reasonably calculated to provide notice in the
ordinary case,” Jones, 547 U.S. at 230. The Government
need not provide actual notice to satisfy due process. See
Dusenbery v. United States, 534 U.S. 161, 170 (2002). But
adequate notice requires something more than employing
means that knowingly result in a failure to provide notice—
as Jones elaborated upon.
In Jones, the Arkansas Commissioner of State Lands
sent two notices to Gary Jones by certified mail that his
property taxes were delinquent and that, unless Jones
14 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
redeemed the property, it would be subject to public sale.
547 U.S. at 223-24. Both certified letters were sent to the
address registered by Jones and both mailings were returned
“unclaimed.” /d. at 224. The Commissioner took no further
steps to notify Jones of the impending foreclosure. J/d. at
229. A few weeks before the foreclosure sale, the
Commissioner also published a notice of public sale in the
newspaper. Jd. at 224. The home was sold to respondent
Linda Flowers at a fraction of its fair market value. Jd.
Following the sale, Jones sued the Commissioner and
Flowers in state court, asserting that the Commissioner’s
failure to provide notice of the tax sale and resulting loss of
his property was a due process violation. /d. The Arkansas
Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s grant of summary
judgment in favor of Flowers and the Commissioner,
holding that attempting to provide notice by certified mail
satisfied due process under the circumstances. /d. at 225.
The Supreme Court reversed and held that “when mailed
notice of a tax sale is returned unclaimed, the State must take
additional reasonable steps to attempt to provide notice to
the property owner before selling his property, if it is
practicable to do so.” Jd. Applying Mullane’s admonition
that the means “must be such as one desirous of actually
informing the absentee might reasonably adopt,” id. at 229
(quoting Mullane, 339 U.S. at 315), the Court reasoned that
“a person who actually desired to inform” another would not
“do nothing when a certified letter...is returned
unclaimed.” /d. (emphasis added). Jones clarified that one
of “the circumstances” relevant to determining whether
notice was “reasonably calculated” is whether “the
government becomes aware . . . that its attempt at notice has
failed.” Jd. at 226-27. When the Government has actual
knowledge that notice was not effective, it “must take
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 15
additional reasonable steps to attempt to provide
notice .. . if it is practicable to do so.” /d. at 225; see id. at
230 (“[T]he government’s knowledge that notice pursuant to
the normal procedure was ineffective triggered an obligation
on the government’s part to take additional steps to effect
notice.”).
B.
We have applied the M/ullane-Jones due process analysis
to evaluate the adequacy of notice in a variety of contexts.
See, e.g., Yi Tu v. Nat’l Transp. Safety Bd., 470 F.3d 941,
946 (9th Cir. 2006) (pilot license suspension proceedings);
JB. v. United States, 916 F.3d 1161, 1173-74 (9th Cir.
2019) (subpoena of tax records); Grimm v. City of Portland
(Grimm I), 971 F.3d 1060, 1068 (9th Cir. 2020) (municipal
vehicle towing action); Zaylor v. Yee (Taylor V), 780 F.3d
928, 935-38 (9th Cir. 2015) (state unclaimed property act
procedures).
In Yi Tu, for example, we considered the notice afforded
a pilot who faced Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”)
license suspension for “‘buzzing’ (flying below proscribed
minimum safe altitudes)” over Mount Rushmore. 470 F.3d
at 943. After the pilot opted for an immediate suspension of
his license so that he could appeal the agency’s decision, the
FAA sent the suspension orders and notices of appeal to him
only by certified mail. /d. at 944. The suspension orders
were returned “unclaimed,” causing the pilot to miss the
deadline in which to appeal the agency’s decision. /d.
Applying Jones, we held that the FAA provided
constitutionally deficient notice of the pilot license
suspension orders. /d. at 946. The FAA’s notice was not
“reasonably calculated” to reach the pilot because the FAA
knew that its two previous certified mailings had been
16 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
returned “unclaimed,” and yet the agency failed to take
additional reasonable steps to notify the pilot of the
suspension orders. /d. We observed that six weeks after the
pilot’s suspension, the FAA reverted to sending letters
demanding the surrender of his pilot’s license by both
certified mail and first-class mail, demonstrating the
feasibility of first-class mail. /d. We noted that when the
agency actually desired to inform the pilot, it resorted to
regular mail as an additional method of service. Jd.
Several of our sister circuits have also applied the
Mullane-Jones framework to evaluate the adequacy of
notice in a variety of legal proceedings. See, e.g,
Luessenhop v. Clinton Cnty., 406 F.3d 259, 268-72 (2d Cir.
2006) (property foreclosure); Peralta-Cabrera v. Gonzales,
501 F.3d 837, 845 (7th Cir. 2007) (removal proceedings);
Garcia-Rubiera y. Fortufio, 665 F.3d 261, 276 (1st Cir.
2011) (compulsory motor vehicle insurance reimbursement
scheme), Linn Farms & Timber Ltd. P’ship v. Union Pac.
RR. Co., 661 F.3d 354, 358-59 (8th Cir. 2011) (mineral
rights forfeiture proceedings); Echavarria v. Pitts, 641 F.3d
92, 94-95 (Sth Cir. 2011) (Department of Homeland
Security (“DHS”) action), as revised (June 21, 2011); Lampe
v. Kash, 735 F.3d 942, 943-44 (6th Cir. 2013) (bankruptcy
action); Yang v. City of Wyoming, 793 F.3d 599, 603 (6th
Cir. 2015) (Section 1983 action involving building
demolition); D.R.7.G. Builders, LLC v. Occupational Safety
& Health Rev. Comm’n, 26 F.4th 306, 311 (Sth Cir. 2022)
(Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”)
action).
For example, in Echavarria, the Fifth Circuit held that
due process required the DHS to take “additional reasonable
steps” to notify a certified class of bond obligors that their
cash bonds (posted to secure the release of detained
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 17
noncitizens) were in breach after the agency learned that the
bond demands sent by certified mail were returned as
undeliverable. 641 F.3d at 93-95. In so concluding, the
Fifth Circuit rejected the Government’s argument that Jones
should not apply in the immigration bond context,
explaining that Jones stands for the “general principle of
requiring additional reasonable steps when the sender knows
that notice was not received....” /d. at 95; see also
D.R.T.G. Builders, 26 F.4th at 311 (concluding OSHA “took
steps that were reasonably calculated” under Jones to
provide petitioner notice of a workplace safety citation when
it sent additional mailings after discovering its certified mail
attempts had failed).
As the foregoing authorities make clear, the due process
principles enshrined in Mullane and Jones apply generally
across many legal proceedings and are not limited to tax
foreclosure sales or only certain government actions. That
is, whenever “notice is a person’s due,” Mullane, 339 U.S.
at 315, the Due Process Clause requires that “notice must be
reasonably calculated to inform parties of proceedings which
may directly and adversely affect their legally protected
interests,’ Walker, 352 U.S. at 115. Under Jones,
“knowledge on the government’s part is a ‘circumstance and
condition’ that varies the ‘notice required.’” 547 U.S. at 227.
As we explain next, these due process principles apply with
equal force in the context of immigration removal
proceedings.
C.
We have repeatedly reaffirmed that “[t]he Due Process
Clause protects aliens in deportation proceedings and
includes the right to a full and fair hearing as well as notice
of that hearing.” Farhoud v. INS, 122 F.3d 794, 796 (9th
18 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
Cir. 1997) (first citing U.S. Const. amend. V; and then citing
Landon vy. Plasencia, 459 U.S. 21, 32-33 (1982)); see also
Dobrota vy. INS, 311 F.3d 1206, 1210 (9th Cir. 2002)
(“Aliens facing deportation are entitled to due process under
the Fifth Amendment... encompassing a full and fair
hearing and notice of that hearing.”); Barraza Rivera v. INS,
913 F.2d 1443, 1447 (9th Cir. 1990) (“The Fifth Amendment
guarantees due process in deportation proceedings.”);
Campos-Sanchez v. INS, 164 F.3d 448, 450 (9th Cir. 1999)
(accord). And, indeed, the Government agreed at oral
argument that the Due Process Clause applies to everyone
who is physically present within the sovereign territory of
the United States.
Noncitizens are entitled to due process protections
regardless of whether their presence in this country is lawful.
See Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, 693 (2001) (“[T]he
Due Process Clause applies to all ‘persons’ within the United
States, including aliens, whether their presence here is
lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent.”); Plyler v. Doe,
457 U.S. 202, 210 (1982) (Aliens, even aliens whose
presence in this country is unlawful, have long been
recognized as ‘persons’ guaranteed due process of law by the
Fifth ... Amendment[].”); Shaughnessy v. United States ex
rel. Mezei, 345 U.S. 206, 212 (1953) (“It is true that aliens
who have once passed through our gates, even illegally, may
be expelled only after proceedings conforming to traditional
standards of fairness encompassed in due process of law.”);
Yamataya v. Fisher, 189 U.S. 86, 101 (1903) (holding that
noncitizens “alleged to be illegally here” are still protected
by due process of law). And the stakes for an individual
subject to removal are no less severe than other legal
proceedings. See Niz-Chavez v. Garland, 593 U.S. 155,
163-64 (2021) (“A notice to appear serves as the basis for
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 19
commencing a grave legal proceeding... . [I]t is ‘like an
indictment in a criminal case [or] a complaint in a civil
299
case.’” (citation omitted)).
In the context of a criminal prosecution for illegal
reentry, criminal defendants are also entitled to a meaningful
opportunity for judicial review of the underlying removal
order, including an examination of whether the prior
removal proceedings comported with due process. See 8
U.S.C. § 1326 (permitting a collateral challenge to
underlying removal order); see also Mendoza-Lopez, 481
U.S. at 839; Melendez-Castro, 671 F.3d at 954-55 (holding
that a defect in defendant’s removal proceedings violated his
right to due process and required the district court to
determine if he suffered prejudice); United States v. Ubaldo-
Figueroa, 364 F.3d 1042, 1047 (9th Cir. 2004) (“In a
criminal prosecution under § 1326, the Due Process Clause
of the Fifth Amendment requires a meaningful opportunity
for judicial review of the underlying deportation.” (quoting
United States v. Zarate-Martinez, 133 F.3d 1194, 1197 (9th
Cir. 1998))).
While no published Ninth Circuit decision has squarely
applied Jones in the context of a removal proceeding, we
have repeatedly suggested that Jones provides the correct
framework to analyze due process claims in this context. In
Chaidez v. Gonzales, for example, we considered whether a
notice of hearing sent by certified mail was adequate when
it was signed by an unknown person at that address rather
than the person subject to removal. 486 F.3d 1079, 1081
(9th Cir. 2007). Citing Jones, we observed that the agency’s
policy of permitting any person at the noncitizen’s address
to sign a certified mailing could raise due process concerns.
See id. at 1086 n.8. We avoided the question, however, after
20 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
determining that the Government’s notice efforts failed to
meet even statutory requirements. See id. at 1086-87 & n.8.
Likewise, in A/ Mutarreb v. Holder, we cited Jones when
considering the adequacy of a notice to appear for removal
proceedings. 561 F.3d 1023, 1027 (9th Cir. 2009). There,
the agency sent notice by certified mail, the notice was
returned to the agency unclaimed, and the agency took no
further steps to notify Al Mutarreb or his counsel of record.
See id. at 1027-28 (citing Jones, 547 U.S. at 225). We again
avoided the constitutional question—whether the agency’s
failure to take additional reasonable steps to effectuate notice
violated due process—after concluding that the removal
order was invalid on other grounds. /d. at 1028; see also
Williams v. Mukasey, 531 F.3d 1040, 1042 (9th Cir. 2008)
(clarifying that Mullane-Jones “provide[s] the ‘appropriate
analytical framework’ for considering the adequacy of
notice” in the context of an immigrant petitioner’s motion to
reopen before the Board of Immigration Appeals (quoting
Dusenbery, 534 U.S. at 167)).
Today we make explicit what has been implied in our
prior case law. We hold that the notice afforded to
noncitizens subject to removal is governed by the due
process standards articulated in Mullane and Jones. Notice
by the Government must be reasonably calculated to apprise
noncitizens of the pendency of removal proceedings and to
afford them the opportunity to be present and to participate.
Jones, 547 U.S. at 226. “The notice must be of such nature
as reasonably to convey the required information, and it must
afford a reasonable time for those interested to make their
appearance.” Mullane, 339 U.S. at 314 (internal citations
omitted). Where the Government learns that its notice
efforts have not succeeded, that knowledge triggers an
obligation on the Government’s part to take additional
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 21
reasonable steps to effect notice, if it is practicable to do so.
Jones, 547 U.S. at 234. Notice is not “reasonably
calculated” under the circumstances when the Government
knows its method of service was ineffective and takes no
additional steps to effect notice that are reasonably available
to it. Id. at 227, 229.
IL.
All eleven members of this panel agree that the due
process principles of Mullane and Jones apply to
immigration removal proceedings. The Government
contends, however, that even if Jones applies to such
proceedings, its notice to Rivera-Valdes satisfied due
process for three reasons. First, it argues that because the
agency met statutory notice requirements, it necessarily
satisfied constitutional requirements as well. Second, it
argues that Rivera- Valdes was afforded due process because
he was made aware of the forthcoming deportation
proceedings when he was personally served with the OSC.
Finally, the Government argues that Rivera- Valdes forfeited
any due process claim when he failed to update his address
with the agency. We address each contention in turn.
A.
First, the Government contends that by fulfilling its
statutory notice obligations imposed by the Immigration and
Nationality Act (“INA”), it necessarily satisfied its
constitutional due process obligations to Rivera-Valdes.
This argument is foreclosed by Jones. In 1994, the operative
provision of the INA required that the Government prove
“by clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence” that
“written notice” was “provided to the alien or the alien’s
counsel of record” before an immigration judge could order
22 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
removal in absentia* 8 U.S.C. § 1252b(c)(1) (repealed
1996). At the time, section 1252b(a)(2)(A) specified that
written notice of deportation proceedings “shall be given in
person to the alien (or, if personal service is not practicable,
written notice shall be given by certified mail to the alien or
to the alien’s counsel of record, if any), in the order to show
cause or otherwise, of... the time and place at which the
proceedings will be held.” The term “certified mail” was
defined as “certified mail, return receipt requested.” /d.
§ 1252b(f)(1). The Government asserts that its compliance
with these statutory requirements necessarily satisfied its
due process obligations to Rivera-Valdes.
As Jones makes clear, however, compliance with
statutory notice requirements does not resolve whether
notice is reasonably calculated under the “practicalities and
peculiarities of [an individual] case.” 547 U.S. at 230-31
(quoting Mullane, 339 U.S. at 314-15). Even when a statute
imposes requirements that are “reasonably calculated” to
provide notice in the usual circumstance, notice may not
satisfy due process in a particular case. /d. at 231-32.
Although the Commissioner in Jones complied with state
law by sending notice of Jones’s tax delinquency to him by
certified mail, id. at 224-25, doing so did not insulate the
Commissioner against claims that the notice of foreclosure
to Jones was constitutionally inadequate. /d. at 231-32.
Rather, the Supreme Court emphasized that the “government
4 Under the 1994 statutory regime, notice by certified mail created a
presumption in the Government’s favor of effective service, which a
petitioner could rebut by showing (1) that their mailing address had not
changed; (11) that neither the petitioner or a “responsible party working
or residing at that address refused service”, and (i11) that there was
“nondelivery or improper delivery by the Postal Service.” Arrieta v. INS,
117 F.3d 429, 432 (9th Cir. 1997).
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 23
[is required] to consider unique information about an
intended recipient regardless of whether a statutory scheme
is reasonably calculated to provide notice in the ordinary
case.” Jd. at 230.
Similarly, in Yi Tu, we rejected the FAA’s argument that
because it was statutorily authorized to give notice of license
suspension proceedings by certified mail, its notice to the
pilot necessarily satisfied due process. 470 F.3d at 945-46.
We concluded that “[a] reasonable agency actually desirous
of notifying an individual of his right to be heard would not
resort to a ‘mechanical adherence’ to the minimum form of
notice authorized by regulation in the very instance when
timely notice is most crucial.” /d. at 946 (quoting Dobrota,
311 F.3d at 1213). That the FAA complied with its statutory
obligation to deliver notice by certified mail did not
immunize the agency from the claim that its notice failed to
satisfy due process under the particular circumstances of that
case. See id.
B.
Second, the Government contends that Rivera-Valdes
was afforded due process because he was personally served
with an OSC advising him to expect a subsequent hearing
notice. Our dissenting colleague places great emphasis on
this point, noting that “Rivera-Valdes had received recent
actual notice of his deportation proceedings through
personal service of the OSC, which was written and read to
him in his primary language of Spanish.” Diss. at 40.
According to the dissent, neither Mullane nor any of the
cases before it has held that notice must contain the specific
date, time, and location of a forthcoming hearing for due
process to be satisfied. Diss. at 44. Because Rivera- Valdes
knew from the OSC that a deportation proceeding had been
24 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
commenced against him, and the INS ultimately did send
him notice by certified mail of the date, time, and location of
his hearing (albeit unsuccessfully), the dissent and the
Government contend that Rivera-Valdes was afforded
constitutionally adequate notice. We disagree.
“The fundamental requisite of due process of law is the
opportunity to be heard.” Grannis v. Ordean, 234 U.S. 385,
394 (1914). This “right to be heard has little reality or worth
unless one is informed that the matter is pending and can
choose for himself whether to appear or default, acquiesce
or contest.” Greene, 456 US. at 449 (quoting Mullane, 339
U.S. at 314). For that reason, “notice must be of such nature
as reasonably to convey the required information, and it must
afford a reasonable time for those interested to make their
appearance.” Mullane, 339 U.S. at 314 (internal citations
omitted). Here, the relevant question is whether personal
service of the OSC on Rivera-Valdes conveyed the “required
information” which would “afford [him] an opportunity” to
appear at his removal hearing and “present [his] objections.”
Id. \t did not.
It is true, as our dissenting colleague observes, that
Rivera-Valdes learned from the OSC that a deportation
hearing would be forthcoming. But notice conveying that a
deportation hearing may be scheduled at some unknown
point in the future—without specifying the date, time, or
location—hardly afforded Rivera-Valdes the opportunity to
appear and be heard. “[D]ue process 1s flexible and calls for
such procedural protections as the particular situation
demands.” Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 481 (1971).
But, as Mullane cautions, “when notice is a person’s due,
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 25
process which is a mere gesture is not due process.” 339
US. at 315.4
Our dissenting colleague relies on the notion that Rivera-
Valdes received “actual notice to expect notice of his
deportation hearing.” Diss. at 42-43. But the Supreme
Court in Jones rejected the argument that an individual
having “inquiry notice” of a potential proceeding relieves a
governmental entity of its constitutional obligations. See
547 U.S. at 232 (“[T]he common knowledge that property
may become subject to government taking when taxes are
not paid does not excuse the government from complying
with its constitutional obligation of notice before taking
private property.”).
We have similarly rejected the notion that notice of
earlier steps in a proceeding lessens the need to provide
constitutionally adequate notice at later steps in a
proceeding. In Yi 7u, not only was the pilot aware of the
license suspension proceedings against him, he had
participated in the earlier stages of those proceedings. See
470 F.3d at 944. In fact, the FAA sent nine mailings
regarding these proceedings, and the pilot received at least
four of them. See id. at 943-44. Nevertheless, the failure of
the FAA to provide the pilot with adequate notice of the
5 Indeed, under the statutory regime that applied at the time of Rivera-
Valdes’s removal, personal service of the OSC only advised Rivera-
Valdes that a deportation hearing might be scheduled. Service of the
OSC did not itself trigger the scheduling of a hearing. See 8 U.S.C.
§ 1252b(a)(1)-(2). Both the INS and the Immigration Court were
required to take additional steps for that to occur. See 8 C.F.R. § 3.14(a)
(1994) (explaining that jurisdiction vests with the Immigration Court
upon filing and service of a noticed motion to schedule deportation
hearing); id. § 3.18 (explaining the Immigration Court’s obligation to
schedule hearing and send notice to the government and respondent).
26 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
order of suspension violated his due process rights. See id.
at 945-46. Similarly, Rivera-Valdes did not receive
constitutionally adequate notice simply by being personally
served with the OSC.
C.
Finally, the Government contends that Rivera-Valdes
forfeited his due process claim when he failed to update his
address with the agency. As we discuss below, the
Government relies on a premise not established by the
record. It is not at all clear that Rivera-Valdes had moved.
But even if he had, Jones disposes of the Government’s
contention. Again, the Court explained that “Jones’ failure
to comply with a statutory obligation to keep his address
updated [did not] forfeit[] his nght to constitutionally
sufficient notice.” 547 U.S. at 232. So too here with Rivera-
Valdes.®
IV.
It is undisputed that in response to the returned,
unclaimed notice of hearing, the Government did nothing.
Under Jones, the appropriate remedy is to remand to allow
the district court to determine if the agency had other
6 The dissent asserts that this case is distinguishable from Jones,
Robinson, and Covey, speculating—with no support from the record.
that unlike the individuals in those cases who had “every incentive to
learn” of their proceedings, Rivera- Valdes was incentivized to “avoid his
deportation proceeding, and to ignore or fail to claim mail.” Diss. at 50
n.15. Even were this true, the dissent has not explained why Rivera-
Valdes’s motives would diminish his due process right to notice
reasonably calculated to reach him. As Jones confirms, whatever the
failings of the interested party, the relevant due process inquiry 1s
whether government knowledge that notice has failed should obligate it
to take additional steps to effect notice when it is practicable to do so.
See 547 U.S. at 234.
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 27
practicable alternatives through which to attempt notice on
Rivera-Valdes. 547 U.S. at 234; see also Echavarria, 641
F.3d at 95.
This is a quintessential factual inquiry best left to the
district court to undertake in the first instance. In Jones, the
Court described other reasonable measures the Government
could have taken to effect notice, but cautioned that “[i]t is
not our responsibility to prescribe the form of service that
the [government] should adopt.” 547 U:S. at 234 (alterations
in original). Guided by this approach, we outline possible
alternatives the district court may consider on remand.
One alternative is to consider whether the address in the
A-file’? matched the address to which the Government sent
the notice of hearing by certified mail. The record indicates
that, when the approval of Rivera-Valdes’s employment
authorization application was sent to the Cleveland address
that included “Ave.,” he showed up to retrieve his
authorization papers. It was only after subsequent mailings
were sent without the word “Ave.” in the Cleveland address
that the OSC and notice of hearing were returned as “not
deliverable as addressed” and “unclaimed.” The district
court should consider if any discrepancy in the addresses
was a basis for the unsuccessful mailings, and if so, whether
the Government could have taken additional steps to correct
1t.
The dissent concludes that remand is unnecessary
because Rivera-Valdes “confirmed” or “corroborated” that
the address listed on the OSC—which omitted the word
“Ave.”—was his current address. See, e.g., Diss. at 41. But
7 An “A-file” 1s the file DHS keeps on the deportable noncitizen. See
Echavarria, 641 F.3d at 96 n.3.
28 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
the dissent misreads what the OSC actually states. The OSC
did not prompt Rivera- Valdes to confirm the accuracy of the
OSC. Rather, the OSC’s signature line prompted Rivera-
Valdes’s “acknowledgment/receipt of this form.” This
stands in contrast, for example, to the signature line in
Rivera-Valdes’s application for employment authorization,
which required that the signer “certify under penalty of
perjury under the laws of the United States of America, that
the foregoing is true and correct.” In that document, Rivera-
Valdes listed his N. Cleveland address with the word “Ave.”
This discrepancy between the addresses in the record
warrants remand to the district court for further factual
development. The Fifth Circuit took a similar approach in
Echavarria, holding that the district court did not err in
finding that “the reasonable steps available to DHS included
reference to... the A-file of the bonded immigrant for
alternate contact information.” 641 F.3d at 96 (footnote
omitted). Echavarria observed that “[t]he A-file is readily
accessible to DHS. When the government can attempt to
ascertain the necessary information through such minimal
effort, it is incumbent on the government to do so.” /d.
Another alternative for the district court to consider may
be whether sending the notice of hearing by first-class mail
was a feasible option. In Yi 7u, we observed that first-class
mail may be a reasonably calculated alternative because it
can “be examined at the end of the day, [whereas certified
mail] can only be retrieved from the post office for a
specified period of time.” 470 F.3d at 943 n.1 (quoting
Jones, 547 U.S. at 235); see id. at 945 (“[W]here mailed
notice is returned unclaimed, the government must take
additional steps to [e]nsure notice, if it 1s practicable to do
so.”). These suggestions are not exhaustive, and we leave it
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 29
to the parties to suggest whether other reasonable
alternatives were available to the agency.
Even if Rivera-Valdes establishes a due process
violation, that is not the end of the district court’s inquiry.
Rivera-Valdes must demonstrate that he is entitled to relief
under the other prongs of collateral attack: prejudice,
administrative exhaustion, and deprivation of judicial
review. See 8 U.S.C. § 1326(d); Martinez, 786 F.3d at 1230.
The district court left these questions undecided, and we
decline to consider them in the first instance.
V.
Under Mullane and Jones, due process requires that the
notice afforded to individuals subject to immigration
removal proceedings must be reasonably calculated to
inform them of the pendency of the proceedings and a
meaningful opportunity to appear and to contest the charges.
When the Government learned that its only attempt to notify
Rivera-Valdes of the date, time, and location of his removal
hearing had failed, it was not enough for the Government to
throw up its hands and do nothing. The Government was
obligated to take additional reasonable steps to effect notice,
provided it was practicable to do so. See Jones, 547 U.S. at
234. We therefore vacate the district court’s judgment and
remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
VACATED and REMANDED.
30 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
BENNETT, Circuit Judge, dissenting, with whom
CALLAHAN and IKUTA, Circuit Judges, join, and with
whom MILLER and FORREST, Circuit Judges, join as to
Parts UI.B and IV only:
This case concerns whether the government provided
Leopoldo Rivera-Valdes with constitutionally adequate
notice of his deportation proceedings in 1994. The
Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS” or
“agency”’) served him with an Order to Show Cause
(“OSC”), informed him in person of an upcoming
deportation hearing, confirmed his current address,
instructed him to notify the immigration court within five
days of an address change, served him via regular mail the
motion to schedule a hearing, and sent him via certified mail
a notice that his hearing had been in fact scheduled.
First, on these facts, the Constitution required nothing
more. Second, even after the mailed notices were returned,
there were no further “additional reasonable steps” that the
government was constitutionally required to undertake.
Third, Rivera-Valdes cannot meet his burden of showing a
due process violation or resulting prejudice, which is
required under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(d) for collateral attacks on
removal orders. Because each of these three reasons
independently precludes Rivera-Valdes’s challenge to his
indictment, I respectfully dissent.
I.
On March 3, 1994, Rivera-Valdes, a citizen of Mexico,
appeared at an INS office to collect his work permit after
filing an application for asylum. His application falsely
stated that he was a citizen of Guatemala who feared
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 31
persecution by guerrillas,’ but it listed an address at which
he was capable of receiving mail.2_ The INS had mailed
Rivera- Valdes notices to that address about the receipt of his
asylum application, and his grant of work authorization. As
instructed by those mailed notices, Rivera-Valdes arrived at
the INS office to pick up his employment authorization
document. He presented a false Guatemalan birth certificate
as proof of identity. When confronted with that falsity,
Rivera-Valdes admitted to the fraud? and withdrew his
! The application falsely states, for example:
I am seeking political asylum due to the fact that when
I was 13 the guerrillas forced me to join their group. I
didn’t realy [sic] understand what was going on but
when I realized that they were bad, I tried very hard to
escape. My (2) brothers who were also guerrillas were
killed, by the military soldiers. I got away, and fled to
the United States. ... I know that the guerrillas would
hunt me down and kill me because I abandoned
them.... I fear very much for my life. Please assist
me to get political asylum.
2 The asylum application uses “Clevenland” in the street name, while
other documents in the record use “Cleveland.” As the government
notes, Rivera- Valdes has not argued below or on appeal that there is a
material distinction between the two. Thus, like the majority, I treat it as
a single address. See Maj. at 7.
3 The INS Special Agent documented the encounter as follows:
1. Subject was encountered this date [March 3, 1994]
when he appeared at the Portland Exams Office and
presented a false Guatemalan Birth Cert. as proof of
identity in order to pick up his EAD [(Employment
Authorization Document)].
32 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
asylum application. INS officials personally served him
with an OSC.
The OSC was written in English and Spanish and read to
him in Spanish, his primary language. It stated in English
that his deportation hearing would be held at a date “to be
calendared and notice provided by the Office of the
Immigration Judge,” which was translated in Spanish as:
“the Office of the Immigration Judge will mail a notice to
the address provided by respondent with the date of the
hearing.”* The OSC instructed:
You are required by law to provide
immediately in writing an address (and
telephone number, if any) where you can be
contacted. You are required to provide
written notice, within five (5) days, of any
change in your address or telephone number
to the office of the Immigration Judge listed
2. Subject freely admitted to being a native and citizen
of Mexico who last entered the U.S. as stated above
[in February 1993, near Nogales, Arizona, without
inspection].
3. Subject claims that he purchased the false Guat.
Birth Cert. and the political asylum paperwork from
a man named “Juan” who lives in an apartment on
Williams St. in Portland. Claims further that he
paid $200 for the [birth certificate |/paperwork.
‘4 The original Spanish text reads: “La Oficina del juez de inmigracion
enviara un aviso a la direccion facilitada por demandado con la fecha de
la Audiencia.” The above English translation is based on how the OSC
translates identical terms elsewhere.
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 33
in this notice. Any notices will be mailed
only to the last address provided by you.
The OSC did not list a telephone number. But Rivera-
Valdes confirmed that he could be contacted at the following
address, as typewritten on the OSC:
4037 N Cleveland
Portland, Oregon 97212
Rivera-Valdes signed the OSC and provided his right
thumbprint. The OSC also stated:
[Y]ou will be ordered deported in your
absence, if it is established that you are
deportable and you have been provided the
appropriate notice of the hearing.... If you
are ordered deported in your absence, you
cannot seek to have that order rescinded
except that: (a) you may file a motion to
reopen the hearing within 180 days after the
date of the order if you are able to show that
your failure to appear was because of
exceptional circumstances, or (b) you may
file a motion to reopen at any time after the
date of the order if you can show that you did
not receive written notice of your hearing and
you had provided your address and telephone
number (or any changes of your address or
telephone number) as required... .
The OSC is attached as an appendix.
34 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
Two notices were mailed to the address confirmed by
Rivera-Valdes on the OSC. On April 20, 1994, after filing
the OSC with the immigration court and moving to schedule
the case for a hearing, the government mailed via regular
mail a copy of the scheduling motion? to the address listed
on the OSC:
Leopoldo Rivera-Valdes
4037 N Cleveland
Portland OR 97212
This notice was returned as “Not Deliverable As
Addressed[,] Unable to Forward.” On April 25, 1994, once
the hearing had been scheduled, the government mailed via
certified mail a deportation hearing notice, providing the
time and place of the hearing. The certified mail was
addressed to:
> The Certificate of Service was signed by an INS legal technician, and
stated:
I certify that I served this motion on Respondent by
sending a true copy to him, along with a copy of the
legal aid list for Oregon and Form 1-618, by regular
mail, postage prepaid to the following address:
Leopoldo RIVERA- Valdes
4037 N Cleveland
Portland OR 97212
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 35
RIVERA-VALDES, LEOPOLDO
4037 N CLEVELAND
PORTLAND OR 97212
This notice was “Returned to Sender” as “Unclaimed.”®
On August 12, 1994, the immigration court held the
hearing and ordered Rivera-Valdes deported in absentia.
Rivera-Valdes was not apprehended and deported until
2006.
At some point following his deportation, Rivera-Valdes
returned to the United States. In 2019, he was indicted on
one count of illegal reentry. Rivera-Valdes moved to
dismiss the indictment, collaterally attacking his 1994
deportation order. In a 2020 declaration, Rivera-Valdes
stated that “[i]n 1994, [he] was never informed that any
deportation hearing had been scheduled on [his] behalf’ and
that he “never received notice that [his] deportation hearing
had been scheduled for August 12, 1994.” His declaration
did not state where he was living in 1994 or whether 4037 N
Cleveland, Portland OR 97212 was his address at any
relevant time.
In denying the motion to dismiss the indictment, the
district court found that Rivera-Valdes “failed to provide any
compelling evidence that notice of his removal hearing was
not ‘reasonably calculated’ to reach him” and thus failed to
© As the majority notes, Rivera-Valdes concedes that according to the
U.S. Postal Service, “unclaimed” means the addressee abandoned or
failed to call for the mail. Maj. at 8 n.1.
36 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
meet his burden of showing a due process violation
(emphasis added).’
IL.
I agree with the majority that “the due process
principles” of Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust
Co., 339 U.S. 306 (1950), and Jones v. Flowers, 547 U.S.
220 (2006), “apply generally across many legal
proceedings,” including “immigration removal
proceedings.” Maj. at 17; see also Maj. at 21. But in
evaluating the notice afforded to Rivera-Valdes of his
deportation proceedings, the majority fails to undertake the
inquiry required under the Mullane-Jones framework.
Instead, the majority holds that any time a mailed notice is
returned, this “triggers an obligation on the Government’s
part to take additional reasonable steps to effect notice, if it
is practicable to do so.” Maj. at 6; see also Maj. at 14-15,
20-21. But this new and unjustified per se rule conflicts with
the fact-specific and fact-dependent Mullane-Jones
framework. A proper application of Mullane-Jones shows
that the steps the government did take and the notice the
government did provide were constitutionally adequate,
which ends the due process inquiry.
A.
As the majority acknowledges, the governing framework
for evaluating the adequacy of notice sets forth a fact-
7 Tn a collateral attack on a removal order, “the defendant bears the
burden of establishing both that the “deportation proceeding violate[d]
[his] due process rights’ and that the violation caused prejudice.” United
States v. Raya-Vaca, 771 F.3d 1195, 1202 (9th Cir. 2014) (alterations in
original) (quoting United States v. Leon-Leon, 35 F.3d 1428, 1431 (9th
Cir. 1994)), abrogated in part on other grounds by DHS v.
Thuraissigiam, 591 U.S. 103 (2020).
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 37
intensive, case-specific inquiry. Maj. at 12 (quoting Walker
v. City of Hutchinson, 352 U.S. 112, 115 (1956)). Due
process challenges to the adequacy of notice are analyzed
under Mullane. As explained by Jones, Mullane held that
“due process requires the government to provide ‘notice
reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances, to
apprise interested parties of the pendency of the action and
afford them an opportunity to present their objections.’”
Jones, 547 U.S. at 226 (quoting Mullane, 339 U.S. at 314).
The notice required must be “appropriate to the nature of the
case,” id. at 223 (quoting Mullane, 339 U.S. at 313), and
“will vary with circumstances and conditions,” id. at 227
(quoting Walker, 352 U.S. at 115). But even in Jones, the
Court noted: “Due process does not require that a property
owner receive actual notice before the government may take
his property.” /d. at 226.
Jones applies Mullane’s due process principles in the
context of analyzing the notice required for the tax sale of
real property. The State of Arkansas began tax delinquency
proceedings against a house owned by Gary Jones. /d. at
223-25. Jones never received the certified letters sent by the
State containing notice of his tax delinquency or notice of
the “pendency of the action” against his property. /d. at 226.
Those letters informed Jones that he had a right to redeem
the property; that unless he redeemed the property, it would
be subject to public sale two years later; and that absent any
bids in the public sale, the property would be privately sold
by the State. /d. at 223-24.
The Jones Court held that “when mailed notice of a tax
sale is returned unclaimed, the State must take additional
reasonable steps to attempt to provide notice to the property
owner before selling his property, if it is practicable to do
so.” Id. at 225. The Court did not hold that any time mail is
38 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
returned, due process always requires more, no matter what
preceded the return. Rather, “[u]nder the circumstances
presented” in Jones’s tax sale case, the Court held that
additional reasonable steps were required and “were
available to the State.” /d. These steps included
“resend[ing] the notice by regular mail [instead of certified
mail], so that a signature was not required”; “post[ing] notice
on the front door’; and “address[ing] otherwise
undeliverable mail to ‘occupant.’” Jd. at 234-35. But the
State was not required to go so far as to “search[] for
[Jones’s] new address in the Little Rock phonebook and
other government records such as income tax rolls.” /d. at
235-36. The Court repeatedly cabined its holding to the
facts of the case. See, e.g., id. at 223 (‘Before a State may
take property and sell it for unpaid taxes, the Due Process
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires the
government to provide the owner ‘notice and opportunity for
hearing appropriate to the nature of the case.’” (emphasis
added) (quoting Mullane, 339 U.S. at 313)); id (“We
granted certiorari to determine whether, when notice of a tax
sale is mailed to the owner and returned undelivered, the
government must take additional reasonable steps to provide
notice before taking the owner’s property.” (emphasis
added)); id. at 227 (“[D]ue process requires the government
to do something more before real property may be sold ina
tax sale.” (emphasis added)); id. at 239 (“The
Commissioner’s effort to provide notice to Jones of an
impending tax sale of his house was insufficient to satisfy
due process given the circumstances of this case.” (emphases
added)).
The other cases cited in the majority’s discussion of
foundational precedent similarly apply Mullane’s due
process principles to specific factual contexts. Maj. at 12-
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 39
13 (citing Walker, 352 U.S. at 116 (holding publication
notice of condemnation constitutionally deficient when the
landowner’s name was known to the city); Covey v. Town of
Somers, 351 U.S. 141, 146-47 (1956) (holding mailed
notices of tax foreclosure constitutionally deficient when the
property owner was known by the municipality to be
mentally incompetent and without a guardian); Robinson v.
Hanrahan, 409 U.S. 38, 40 (1972) (per curiam) (holding
mailed notice of vehicle forfeiture proceedings
constitutionally deficient when the car owner was known by
the state to be in jail); Greene v. Lindsey, 456 U.S. 444, 453-
55 (1982) (holding door-posted notice of eviction
proceedings constitutionally deficient when process servers
observed those postings “not infrequently” being torn down
by children and others)).
As the majority recognizes, Mullane-Jones makes clear
that across various factual contexts, due process does not
require the government to effect actual notice. Maj. at 13.
Rather, due process “requires only that the Government’s
effort be ‘reasonably calculated’ to apprise a party of the
pendency of the action.” Dusenbery v. United States, 534
U.S. 161, 170 (2002) (emphasis added) (quoting Mullane,
339 US. at 315). And “[i]t is not [a court’s] responsibility
to prescribe the form of service that the [government] should
adopt.” Jones, 547 U.S. at 234 (first and third alterations in
original) (quoting Greene, 456 U.S. at 455 n.9). The
government can “defend the ‘reasonableness and hence the
constitutional validity of any chosen method ...on the
ground that it is in itself reasonably certain to inform those
affected.’” Dusenbery, 534 U.S. at 170 (omission in
original) (quoting Mullane, 339 U.S. at 315).
40 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
B.
I begin with the fact-intensive inquiry required by
Mullane-Jones. First, the government knew that Rivera-
Valdes had recently provided knowingly false information
in an attempt to avoid deportation. These actions were likely
criminal.2 The government knew Rivera-Valdes had
received recent actual notice of his deportation proceedings
through personal service of the OSC, which was written and
read to him in his primary language of Spanish. The mailed
notices, including the notice providing the time and place of
the hearing, were sent to the address printed on the OSC.
Rivera-Valdes had confirmed this address to be correct in
person at the INS office less than two months before the
notices were mailed. He knew to expect mail about his
deportation hearing at this address—having been
specifically informed at the INS office, in written and spoken
8 See 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a) (making a felony “knowingly and willfully[]
(1) falstf[ying], conceal[ing], or cover[ing] up by any trick, scheme, or
device a material fact; (2) mak[ing] any materially false, fictitious, or
fraudulent statement or representation; or (3) mak[ing] or us[ing] any
false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially
false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry” in “any matter within
the jurisdiction of the executive ... branch of the Government of the
United States”); id. § 1546(a) (making a felony “knowingly forg[ing],
counterfeit[ing], alter[ing], or falsely mak[ing] any immigrant or
nonimmigrant visa, permit, border crossing card, alien registration
receipt card, or other document prescribed by statute or regulation for
entry into or as evidence of authorized stay or employment in the
United States, or utter[ing], us[ing], attempt[ing] to use, possessing],
obtain[ing], accept[ing], or receiv[ing] any such... document
prescribed by statute or regulation for entry into or as evidence of
authorized stay or employment in the United States, knowing it to be
forged, counterfeited, altered, or falsely made, or to have been procured
by means of any false claim or statement, or to have been otherwise
procured by fraud or unlawfully obtained”).
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 41
Spanish, that a notice would be mailed fo this address with
the date of the hearing. He promised to update the INS with
any change in address within five days. And he
acknowledged that any notices would be mailed only to the
last address he provided.
The majority makes much of the fact that unlike the
version of the address used on the earlier, successfully
delivered mailings regarding his asylum application and
work authorization, the version of the address on the OSC
and subsequent returned mailings omitted “Ave.” from the
street name. But the version missing “Ave.” is the /ast
address Rivera-Valdes confirmed, while in person at the INS
office. Again, that is the address Rivera-Valdes
corroborated was his address, and the address he
acknowledged was the precise address to which future
mailings about his upcoming deportation hearing would be
mailed. Although the majority asserts that “[t]he OSC...
omitt[ed] ‘Ave.’ from the address Rivera-Valdes had
provided the agency,” Maj. at 7-8, Rivera-Valdes does not
dispute that he confirmed the address as it was typewritten
on the OSC. Below and on appeal, Rivera-Valdes has not
discussed or even noted the omission of “Ave.” from the
version of his address printed on the OSC and the returned
mailings. When asked at oral argument whether “Ave.” was
a necessary part of the address, counsel for Rivera-Valdes
answered, “I don’t know.” Oral Arg. at 18:37-19:22. In any
case, this alleged discrepancy is not material to the relevant
question here—whether Rivera-Valdes was provided the
process due to him under the Fifth Amendment of the United
States Constitution. Regardless of whether “Ave.” should
have been part of the addresses on the mailed notices,
“mailed notice of petitioner’s deportation hearing to the
address given [by the petitioner as __ statutorily
42 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
required’]...was reasonably calculated to ensure that
notice reached the petitioner.” Farhoud y. INS, 122 F.3d
794, 796 (9th Cir. 1997). And the return of the mailed
notices occurred after Rivera-Valdes received actual notice
of his impending deportation hearing. It is an important fact
that the government knew that Rivera-Valdes had received
actual notice.
In Jones, by contrast, the government knew that Jones
never received actual notice of the impending tax sale. The
return of the certified letters made the government aware that
Jones had failed to receive notice of his tax delinquency, let
alone notice of the “pendency of the action” against his
property. 547 U.S. at 223-24, 226. Jones had furnished the
address to which the notices were mailed when he took out
the mortgage, 33 years before the first notice of the tax sale
proceedings, and he paid off his mortgage—without any
continued contact with the State—three years before that
notice was mailed. /d. at 223-24. Rivera-Valdes, on the
other hand, received actual notice of the pendency of his
? T do not argue that an intended recipient’s “failure to comply with a
statutory obligation to keep his address updated [per se] forfeits his right
to constitutionally sufficient notice’—which Jones forecloses in the
context of a tax sale. 547 U.S. at 232. Rather, as Jones makes clear,
both the government and the intended recipient’s compliance or
noncompliance with statutory notice obligations, even in a tax sale case,
are facts to be considered in the case-specific Mullane-Jones inquiry.
See id. (“Ark. Code Ann. § 26-35-705 provides strong support for the
Commissioner’s argument that mailing a certified letter to Jones at 717
North Bryan Street was reasonably calculated to reach him... .”); id. at
236 (“An open-ended search for a new address—especially when the
State obligates the taxpayer to keep his address updated with the tax
collector—imposes burdens on the State significantly greater than the
several relatively easy options outlined above.” (citation omitted) (citing
Ark. Code Ann. § 26-35-705)).
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 43
deportation proceedings and actual notice to expect notice of
his deportation hearing: he confirmed the address to which
the hearing notice would be mailed only a month-and-a-half
before that notice was mailed.
The majority nevertheless contends that the notice
provided Rivera-Valdes was constitutionally deficient
because he “learned from the OSC that a deportation hearing
would be forthcoming” but not its specific “date, time, or
location.” Maj. at 24. The majority quotes Mullane for the
propositions that (1) “[t]he notice must... convey the
required information,” and (2) the notice “must afford a
reasonable time for those interested to make their
appearance.” Maj. at 20, 24 (quoting Mullane, 339 U.S. at
314). For the proposition about conveying the required
information, Mullane in turn cites Grannis v. Ordean, 234
U.S. 385 (1914), which held that the challenged notice “was
in due form” when “it contained such notice of the
commencement of the action and of its purpose, and such
warning to appear and answer.” /d. at 397. The OSC
likewise conveyed the commencement of deportation
proceedings,!® the purpose of the proceedings,!! and a
19 “Upon inquiry conducted by the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, it is alleged that: 1) You are not a citizen or national of the
United States; 2) You are a native of Mexico and a citizen of Mexico;
3) You entered the United States at or near Nogales, Arizona on or about
an unknown date in February 1993; 4[)] You were not then inspected by
an immigration officer.... [O]n the basis of the foregoing allegations,
it is charged that you are subject to deportation... .”
1! “The Immigration and Naturalization Service believes that you are an
alien not lawfully entitled to be in or to remain in the United States.”
44 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
warning to appear.” For the proposition about affording
reasonable time for interested parties to appear, Mullane
cites Roller v. Holly, 176 U.S. 398 (1900), which held that
the challenged notice—in affording the recipient in Virginia
five days to appear in Texas in the late nineteenth century—
violated due process. /d. at 408, 413. By contrast, the OSC
required Rivera-Valdes to appear at a hearing at his local
immigration court “scheduled no sooner than 14 days” from
the date of service.13 Thus, under these precedents, the OSC
personally served on Rivera-Valdes (1) “convey[ed] the
required information” and (2) “afford[ed] a reasonable time
for [Rivera-Valdes] to make [his] appearance.” Mullane,
339 US. at 314.
None of these cases hold that a party must always learn
the specific “date, time, or location” of a forthcoming
hearing for notice to pass constitutional muster.!4 Maj. at 24.
12 “Yon are required to be present at your deportation hearing .... If
you fail to appear at any hearing after having been given written notice
of the date, time and location of your hearing, you will be ordered
deported in your absence... .”
13 “You will have a hearing before an immigration judge, scheduled no
sooner than 14 days from the date you are served with this Order to Show
Cause... .”
14 Tn fact, each case stresses the need for flexibility to accommodate the
specific circumstances at hand. See Mullane, 339 U.S. at 314-15 (But
if with due regard for the practicalities and peculiarities of the case these
conditions are reasonably met the constitutional requirements are
satisfied.”), Grannis, 234 U.S. at 395 (“*[D]ue process of law’ does not
require ideal accuracy.”); Roller, 176 U.S. at 409 (‘That a man 1s entitled
to some notice before he can be deprived of his liberty or property is an
axiom of the law ... but upon the question of the length of such notice
there is a singular dearth of judicial decision. It is manifest that the
requirement of notice would be of no value whatever, unless such notice
were reasonable and adequate for the purpose.”).
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 45
As the majority acknowledges, the notice of deportation
hearing that the government ultimately sent by certified mail
to Rivera-Valdes did contain the date, time, and location of
his hearing. Maj. at 8. And as the majority acknowledges,
due process required only that this hearing notice be
“reasonably calculated” to reach him—not that this notice
actually reach him. See Maj. at 13 (citing Dusenbery, 534
U.S. at 170). Even in the context of deportation hearings,
our precedents have never required actual notice to comport
with due process. Farhoud, 122 F.3d at 796 (“An alien does
not have to actually receive notice of a deportation hearing
in order for the requirements of due process to be
satisfied.”); accord Popa v. Holder, 571 F.3d 890, 897 (9th
Cir. 2009), abrogated on other grounds by Pereira vy.
Sessions, 585 U.S. 198 (2018).
The majority argues that Rivera-Valdes’s actual notice
to expect notice of his deportation hearing is akin to the
inquiry notice rejected in Jones. Maj. at 25. This
comparison is inapt. The Jones Court stated that “the
common knowledge that property may become subject to
government taking when taxes are not paid does not excuse
the government from complying with its constitutional
obligation of notice before taking private property.” 547
U.S. at 232. But here Rivera-Valdes did not have to rely on
any “common knowledge” of what might happen—he had
actual knowledge that his deportation hearing notice would
be mailed to the address that he confirmed on the OSC. This
fact was printed and read aloud to him in his primary
language of Spanish. That an “OSC d[oes] not itself trigger
the scheduling of a hearing,” Maj. at 25 n.5, is beside the
point when this OSC informed Rivera-Valdes that “the
Office of the Immigration Judge will mail a notice to the
46 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
address provided by respondent with the date of the
hearing.”
Relying on Tu v. National Transportation Safety Board,
470 F.3d 941 (9th Cir. 2006), the majority also argues that
“notice of earlier steps in a proceeding” cannot “lessen[] the
need to provide constitutionally adequate notice at later steps
in a proceeding.” Maj. at 25. But 7u concerned notices that
“were not ‘reasonably calculated to reach the intended
recipient when sent.’” 470 F.3d at 946 (quoting Jones, 547
U.S. at 226). From earlier notices, the government there
“kn[ew] that certified mail was ineffective to reach” the
intended recipient but that “[flirst class mail worked” to
reach the recipient, having elicited his timely responses. Jd.
Under these circumstances, the government’s sending by
certified mail alone of the later notices at issue violated due
process. /d. Here, by contrast, the hearing notice at issue
was “reasonably calculated to reach the intended
recipient when senf’—addressed to the very address that
Rivera- Valdes had confirmed, just a month-and-a-half prior,
as where he could be reached and where his hearing notice
should be sent. /d. (quoting Jones, 547 U.S. at 226). The
majority’s attempted analogy to 7u therefore fails.
The Fifth Amendment, as relevant here, provides Rivera-
Valdes with “due” process before government can deprive
him of his “liberty.” The above facts show beyond doubt
that Rivera-Valdes received at least the process that he was
due. Whatever would be the case if Rivera-Valdes had not
been personally instructed as to his responsibilities shortly
before the mailings, as he was here, is of no moment.
Neither is whatever would be the case if he had furnished his
address many years before (as in Jones), instead of about 50
days before. Under the circumstances presented here,
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 47
Rivera-Valdes has failed to show that he did not receive the
process he was due.
IL.
In the wake of returned mail, the Mullane-Jones
framework does not establish that due process a/ways
requires further action by the government—only that in
some cases, further action is required, and then only if
reasonable and doable. As explained above, the government
provided Rivera-Valdes with constitutionally adequate
notice despite the returned mail, which ends the due process
inquiry. But even if the due process inquiry did not end
there, Rivera-Valdes does not, and cannot, identify any
reasonable steps to effect notice that the government should
have undertaken following the returned notices.
A.
Jones does not require further action whenever mailed
notice is returned. The State of Arkansas had argued that
returned mail should never require further action. See Jones,
547 U.S. at 237. Rejecting the State’s arguments, the Jones
Court held that “when mailed notice ofa tax sale is returned
unclaimed, the State must take additional reasonable steps to
attempt to provide notice to the property owner before
selling his property, if it is practicable to do so.” Jd. at 225
(emphasis added). In so holding, however, the Jones Court
did not adopt a categorical rule that returned mail a/ways
requires further action, or even that returned mail a/ways
requires the government to evaluate the practicability of
further action. Rather, the Jones Court again endorsed a
fact-specific approach, under which the “additional
reasonable steps . . . available to the [government]” depend
on “the circumstances presented” by a given case. Jd. And
Jones held only that what is required in some cases are
48 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
“reasonable additional steps.” /d. at 234 (emphasis added).
Indeed, “if there were no reasonable additional steps the
government could have taken upon return of the unclaimed
notice letter, it [could ]not be faulted for doing nothing.” /d.
(emphasis added).
In the majority’s characterization of Jones, the
government’s knowledge that “its notice effort has not
succeeded ... triggers an obligation on the Government’s
part to take additional reasonable steps to effect notice, if it
is practicable to do so.” Maj. at 6 (citing Jones, 547 U.S. at
225); see also Maj. at 14-15 (quoting Jones, 547 U.S. at
230); Maj. at 20-21 (citing Jones, 547 U.S. at 234).
According to the majority, returned mail a/ways requires the
government to at least consider whether further action is
doable. As explained above, this is an overreading of Jones.
Moreover, the language about an “obligation” that is
“triggered” is taken from the following passage in Jones,
which describes two specific cases:
Under Robinson and Covey, _ the
government’s knowledge that notice
pursuant to the normal procedure was
ineffective triggered an obligation on the
government’s part to take additional steps to
effect notice. That knowledge was one of the
“practicalities and peculiarities of the case,”
that the Court took into account in
determining whether constitutional
requirements were met. It should similarly
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 49
be taken into account in assessing the
adequacy of notice in this case.
547 US. at 230-31 (citation omitted) (quoting Mullane, 339
US. at 314). In Covey, the government knew the intended
recipient of notice was incompetent and lacking a guardian,
but it made “no attempt .. . to have a Committee appointed
for her person or property until after entry of the judgment
of foreclosure in this proceeding.” 351 U.S. at 146. And in
Robinson, the government knew the intended recipient of
notice was in jail, but it “mailed notice of the pending
forfeiture proceedings, not to the jail facility, but to [his]
home address.” 409 U.S. at 38. No circumstances like those
are present in this case; indeed, the government here knew
the intended recipient of notice had confirmed his address in
person to government officials as recently as a month-and-
a-half ago.
The Court’s application of Robinson and Covey in Jones
further highlights that the majority’s per se rule conflicts
with Jones. The Court emphasized:
In prior cases [Robinson and Covey], we have
required the government to consider unique
information about an intended recipient
regardless of whether a statutory scheme is
reasonably calculated to provide notice in the
ordinary case.
Jones, 547 U.S. at 230 (emphasis added). Thus, the Court
emphasized unique facts about Jones himself: he had made
mortgage payments for 30 years (during which the mortgage
company paid his property taxes), id. at 223; after he paid
off his mortgage, the property taxes went unpaid, id.; not
50 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
until three years into tax delinquency was he mailed a notice
letter, which “was promptly returned” weeks later, id. at 231;
and he would have had two years under Arkansas law to
exercise his right to redeem his property, id. It is those
unique facts that triggered the government’s further
obligation in those three cases, not merely the returned mail.
Unlike the unique facts in Robinson, Covey, and Jones,
nothing about the “unique” facts here undercut that the steps
taken by the government were constitutionally adequate
despite the returned mail.>
'S The government correctly points out that not only is the per se rule the
majority establishes inconsistent with Jones, but it also has significant
negative practical consequences:
[T]he backdrop of Jones is “quite different” because a
property owner has no reason to ignore an imminent
tax sale of his property while an unlawful entrant has
“obvious reasons” to avoid his deportation hearing;
requiring “additional steps” would reward evasion of
service.
Response to Pet. for Panel Reh’g & Reh’g En Bane at 4, Dkt. 54.
Requiring the analysis for additional steps every time an immigration
notice 1s returned would indeed reward evasion of service.
The “unique” facts here make the government’s point. As
discussed, Rivera- Valdes likely committed criminal acts in an effort to
avoid deportation, including presenting the government a forged birth
certificate and an asylum application consisting of false statements. This
is the reverse of the unique circumstances present in Jones, Robinson,
and Covey. Those three individuals had no incentive not to learn of the
proceedings, and every incentive to learn. Rivera-Valdes had every
incentive to avoid his deportation proceeding, and to ignore or fail to
claim mail. While this factual difference does not “diminish his due
process right,” Maj. at 26 n.6, it does mean that returned mail in this case
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 51
B.
If I am correct that Rivera-Valdes was afforded
constitutionally adequate notice, despite the returned mail,
and irrespective of what subsequently occurred, that ends the
due process inquiry. But even if I am wrong, to the extent
that Rivera-Valdes has not forfeited the argument that the
government could have done something more after the
mailed notices were returned,’® this argument is unavailing.
Again, under certain circumstances (which, as I argue above,
are not present here), Jones requires “additional reasonable
steps.” 547 U.S. at 234. And the something more needs to
be reasonable, not just doable.
The examples of something more offered by the majority
and Rivera-Valdes on appeal are not reasonable given the
facts here. In 1994, the government possessed no other
information about Rivera-Valdes’s whereabouts besides the
one address of record—which he had corroborated in person
at the INS office a month-and-a-half before the notices were
mailed. The returned notices themselves did not reveal any
was not a unique circumstance requiring the government to do anything
further.
One can imagine similar types of unique facts in the deportation
context and other contexts featuring incentives to evade service. Simply
put, as Jones makes clear, there can be no per se rules. And if there are
no per se rules, Rivera- Valdes cannot possibly succeed in his challenge,
given his unique facts.
16 While the parties and district court did not address Jones below, the
district court asked counsel for Rivera-Valdes at the hearing on the
motion to dismiss: “[W]hat else should the Government have done. . . if
they did not receive any written change of address from your client, other
than send it to the last known address?” Rivera-Valdes did not offer any
information or argument about what more the government could have
done.
52 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
“new information” about where or how Rivera- Valdes could
be reached, which could have in turn advised the government
on what additional steps might be “reasonable in response.”
Id. Thus, there were no “reasonable additional steps”
toward effecting notice that due process required the
government to take. /d. (emphasis added). Without even
considering what steps would be reasonable under the
circumstances presented here, the majority remands for
further factfinding on the practicability of “possible
alternative[]” methods of notice, including those that it and
Rivera-Valdes have proposed.!’ Maj. at 27. This remedy is
misplaced.
Citing Jones, Rivera-Valdes argues that the government
could have “easily undertaken” the additional step of posting
notice on his front door. But the notices were returned
undeliverable and unclaimed from the address Rivera-
Valdes had just confirmed in person to INS officials about
50 days earlier. That hardly suggests posting a notice on the
door of the same address would be reasonable. Rather,
Rivera-Valdes’s own recent interactions at the INS office
show that effecting such a posting was not a reasonable
additional step, even if possible. I do not claim that such a
step would never be appropriate or required were the facts
different. But given the facts outlined above, posting a
notice was not reasonable. '®
7 The district court should not even reach what alternatives were
practicable, because even if certain additional steps were practicable,
they were not reasonable.
18 Similarly, despite Rivera-Valdes’s argument otherwise, the Jones
Court’s suggestion to address undeliverable mail to “occupant” does not
fit this case, which involves not real property interests of an unknown
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 53
Again quoting Jones, Rivera-Valdes contends the
government could have taken the additional step of
resending the notice by regular mail. Under the
circumstances here, a third mailed notice was not
reasonable. The facts of Jones highlight why: in that case,
two notices were returned, both sent by certified mail to
Jones’s address on record. 547 U.S. at 223-24. To address
the possibility that Jones had not been home to provide the
signature required for certified mail, the Court deemed
reasonable the additional step of resending the notice to the
same address by regular mail. /d at 234. The Court
reasoned that “[w]hat steps are reasonable in response to
new information [about the effectiveness of attempted
notice] depends upon what the new information reveals.”
Id.; see id. at 231. Here, by contrast, the first notice returned
was sent by regular mail, while the second was sent by
certified mail. Resending a notice by regular mail after that
method had just failed would not be a reasonable response
to the supposed new information revealed by the returned
certified mail.!°
occupant but due process interests of a specific noncitizen facing
removal.
' Citing Tu, the majority suggests that the government could have resent
the notice by first class mail. Maj. at 28. As explained above, based on
earlier notices sent by both certified and first class mail, the
government’s information about the effectiveness of attempted notice in
Tu included the “know[ledge] [that] certified mail would not reach [the
intended recipient], whereas first class mail would.” 470 F.3d at 942
(emphasis added). Although the government here likewise used two
methods of mail, regular and certified, it did not know that one method
would not reach Rivera-Valdes, while the other method would. Both
methods had resulted in returned mail.
54 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
Citing Echavarria v. Pitts, 641 F.3d 92 (Sth Cir. 2011),
both Rivera-Valdes and the majority propose checking his
A-file as a reasonable additional step that the government
could have taken. Oral Arg. at 15:58—16:20, 21:37-21:40;
Maj. at 27-28. But Echavarria concerned notice to bond
obligors who posted bond to secure the release of immigrant
detainees and whose later notices of bond demands were
returned as undeliverable. 641 F.3d at 93. The Fifth Circuit
held that the district court did not err in finding that
reasonable steps under Mu/lane-Jones included “reference
to ...the A-file of the bonded immigrant for alternate
contact information” for the obligor. /d. at 96 (footnote
omitted). For Rivera-Valdes, however, there was no
alternate point of contact or address potentially at issue. As
in Jones, the circumstances of this case did not require the
government to conduct “[a]n open-ended search for a new
address” for Rivera-Valdes—even in other records readily
accessible to the government (like the income tax rolls in
Jones or the A-file here)—‘especially when the
[government] obligate[d] the [intended recipient] to keep his
address updated” with the relevant agency and the
government had no reason to believe the recipient had
moved. 547 U.S. at 236. To the extent that the majority
suggests that checking the A-file would have been an
additional reasonable step to “correct” the “discrepancy
between the addresses in the record” (i.e., the missing
“Ave.”), Maj. at 27—28, this proposal improperly moves the
goalposts of the due process analysis from reasonably
calculated notice to actual notice.
Indeed, nothing in the record could have made the
government aware in 1994 that Rivera-Valdes might have
been reached at a different address or through a different
method. Rivera-Valdes does not dispute that he provided
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 55
only one address to the INS. And Rivera-Valdes does not
dispute that he confirmed to INS officials that he could be
reached at this address when personally served with the
OSC—only a month-and-a-half before the notices were
mailed. At oral argument, when asked if the record
contained any evidence of where the government could have
reached Rivera-Valdes in the weeks between when he
confirmed his address at the INS office and when his
deportation hearing took place, counsel for Rivera-Valdes
conceded that such evidence “was not proffered.” Oral Arg.
at 2:49-3:17. Rivera-Valdes’s 2020 declaration in support
of his motion to dismiss states that he never received actual
notice of his deportation hearing, but it contains no facts
about how the mailed notices were in any way
problematic—for instance, that he was no longer living at
the address he had confirmed on the OSC or that he was not
at home during business hours to sign for certified mail. And
when asked at oral argument what new evidence Rivera-
Valdes might seek to introduce on remand, his counsel did
not identify any specific evidence.2” Oral Arg. at 55:04—
56:58. The majority’s “remand to allow the district court to
determine if the agency had other practicable alternatives
through which to attempt notice on Rivera-Valdes” is
therefore unnecessary.2!_ Maj. at 26-27. As Jones
contemplated, this is a case where “there were no reasonable
20 Although the majority characterizes the government as “not
meaningfully disput[ing] Rivera-Valdes’s factual assertions,” Maj. at 11,
the government does dispute Rivera-Valdes’s ability to develop
additional facts on remand relevant to the due process analysis.
71 Again, the district court should not reach what alternatives were
practicable, because even if certain additional steps were practicable,
they were not reasonable.
56 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
additional steps the government could have taken” in the
wake of returned mail. 547 U.S. at 234 (emphasis added).
IV.
For the reasons above, Rivera-Valdes cannot show that
the notice of his deportation proceedings violated due
process. But even if Rivera-Valdes establishes a due process
violation, that would not end the inquiry in his favor. As the
majority recognizes, Rivera-Valdes would then have to
“demonstrate that he is entitled to relief under the other
prongs of collateral attack: prejudice, administrative
exhaustion, and deprivation of judicial review.”??_ Maj. at
29. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(d), Rivera-Valdes must show
(1) the entry of his removal order was “fundamentally
unfair”; (2) he “exhausted any administrative remedies that
may have been available”; and (3) he was “deprived... of
the opportunity for judicial review.” 8 U.S.C. § 1326(d); see
United States v. Palomar-Santiago, 593 U.S. 321, 329
(2021). All three prongs are mandatory. Palomar-Santiago,
593 U.S. at 329; United States v. Nunez Sanchez, 140 F.4th
1157, 1163 (9th Cir. 2025).
“An underlying removal order is ‘fundamentally unfair’
if: (1) a defendant’s due process rights were violated by
defects in his underlying deportation proceeding, and (2) he
suffered prejudice as a result of the defects.” United States
v. Martinez-Hernandez, 932 F.3d 1198, 1203 (9th Cir. 2019)
(quoting United States v. Ubaldo-Figueroa, 364 F.3d 1042,
1048 (9th Cir. 2004)). To show prejudice, Rivera-Valdes
*2 Because the district court ended its § 1326(d) analysis after finding no
due process violation, the majority declines to reach prejudice in the first
instance. Maj. at 29. But “[w]e may affirm on any basis supported by
the record.” Fisher v. Kealoha, 855 F.3d 1067, 1069 (9th Cir. 2017) (per
curiam).
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 57
“does not have to show that he actually would have been
granted relief,’ but ‘that he had a “plausible” ground for
relief from deportation.’” United States v. Melendez-Castro,
671 F.3d 950, 955 (9th Cir. 2012) (per curiam) (citation
omitted) (quoting Ubaldo-Figueroa, 364 F.3d at 1050). This
“burden ... rests with the defendant.” United States v.
Valdez-Novoa, 780 F.3d 906, 917 (9th Cir. 2015).
Rivera- Valdes cannot show any prejudice resulting from
the allegedly deficient notice. To argue otherwise, he
maintains that there was a plausible basis that he would have
been granted voluntary departure at his 1994 deportation
hearing. “To be eligible for voluntary departure, an alien
must show in part that he has been a person of good moral
character for the five years immediately preceding his
application for voluntary departure.” Khourassany v. INS,
208 F.3d 1096, 1101 (9th Cir. 2000). It is undisputed that
within the year of his deportation hearing, Rivera-Valdes
admitted filing a false asylum application and presenting a
false and fraudulent birth certificate to the INS. And again,
Rivera-Valdes did not simply lie about being Guatemalan;
he submitted an application with a tale of joining the
guerillas against his will, facing the murders of his brothers
by the Guatemalan military, and fearing that the Guatemalan
guerillas would “hunt [him] down and kill [him].”
Rivera-Valdes’s admission to immigration fraud renders
it (at best) implausible that he would have received a
discretionary grant of voluntary departure. Cf Ahir v.
Mukasey, 527 F.3d 912, 916 (9th Cir. 2008) (noting “an alien
found to have ‘knowingly made a frivolous application for
asylum’ ...becomes ‘permanently ineligible for any
benefits’” under the Immigration and Nationality Act, so a
finding of a frivolous asylum claim requires an immigration
judge, “[b]y operation of [law], . . . to deny [the petitioner’s]
58 USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
applications for adjustment of status and voluntary
departure” (quoting 8 U.S.C. § 1158(d)(6))); Limsico v. INS,
951 F.2d 210, 215 (9th Cir. 1991) (finding petitioner’s sworn
testimony admitting to marriage fraud “would obviously
factor into any discretionary determination concerning
possible relief from deportation”). The parties dispute
whether Rivera-Valdes’s admission amounted to an
admission of the commission of a crime of moral turpitude,
which would have rendered him statutorily ineligible for a
finding of good moral character, and thus ineligible for
voluntary departure.” 8 USC. §1101()G3); id
§ 1182(a)(2)(A)a)q). But statutory eligibility aside, the
next step in determining the plausibility of voluntary
departure would be to weigh the “negative and positive
equities” in Rivera-Valdes’s case as of 1994. Valdez-Novoa,
780 F.3d at 917. “The negative equities include ‘the nature
and underlying circumstances of the deportation ground at
issue; additional violations of the immigration laws; the
existence, seriousness, and recency of any criminal record;
and other evidence of bad character or the undesirability of
the applicant as a permanent resident,’” while “[t]he positive
equities ‘are compensating elements such as long residence
here, close family ties in the United States, or humanitarian
needs.’” Jd. (quoting Matter of Arguelles-Campos, 22 1. &
N. Dec. 811, 817 (B.LA. 1999)). The undisputed fact of
Rivera-Valdes’s immigration fraud (and the details of that
23 The offense of “knowingly and willfully ...mak[ing] any false,
fictitious or fraudulent statements or representations,” or “us[ing] any
false writing or document knowing [it] to contain any false, fictitious or
fraudulent statement”’—“in any matter within the jurisdiction” of the
federal government—is a crime involving moral turpitude. Matter of
Pinzon, 26 1. & N. Dec. 189, 194 n.1, 195 (B.LA. 2013) (quoting 18
US.C. § 1001 (1994)).
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 59
fraud) constitutes a very significant negative equity. Both
below and on appeal, he has proffered no countervailing
positive equities. I find none in the record. I also note that
in 1994, Rivera-Valdes had been in the United States for
only about a year, and had no immediate family in the United
States.
Rivera-Valdes fails to cite, and I cannot find, a single
case in which a similarly situated noncitizen received
voluntary departure. And we have even held that “the
existence of a single case that is arguably on point means
only that it is ‘possible’ or ‘conceivable’ that a similarly
situated alien would be afforded voluntary departure,” which
“is plainly insufficient” to show prejudice. /d. at 920.
Because Rivera-Valdes cannot show a due process
violation or resulting prejudice, he cannot establish that his
1994 deportation order was “fundamentally unfair.” 8
U.S.C. § 1326(d)(3). Thus, § 1326(d) bars any collateral
attack on his removal order.
V.
(1) The government provided Rivera-Valdes with
constitutionally adequate notice of his deportation
proceedings. (2) Rivera-Valdes cannot show that the
government could have taken additional reasonable steps
toward effecting notice after the mailed notices were
returned. (3) Rivera-Valdes cannot establish prejudice from
the alleged due process violation as required under
§ 1326(d), precluding any collateral attack on his removal
order. For each of these three independent and sufficient
reasons, I would affirm the district court’s denial of Rivera-
Valdes’s motion to dismiss the indictment. I therefore
respectfully dissent.
60
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES
APPENDIX
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yCase SaS-cr 00a Document 32-5 Filed er Page 1 of 5
. x
U.S. Department of Justice
Immigration and Naturalization Service
Order to Show Cause and Notice of Hearing
in , Deportation Proceedings under section 242 of the npr a oa cir Act. N
., (En os trémites de deporteciin a tenor daja seccién 242 de 19.57 oe semiaracies Ne
: oe te of ee Shy “y “et aks a eS cf 2 sme oe ey 5
United States of America: oe File NO. NE 697 680
(Estados Unidos de América) - (No. de registro)
Dated March 3, 1994
- (Fechada)
in the matter of Leopoldo RIVERA-Valdes (Respondent)
(En el asunto de) 4037 N Cleveland (Demandado)
Address
Portland, Oregon 97212
(Direccion)
Telephone No. (Area Code}
(No. de teléfono y codigo de area)
Upon inquiry conducted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, it is alleged that:
(Segun las indagaciones realizadas por el Servicio da inmigracién y Naturalizacién, se alega que.)
1} You are not a citizen or national of the United States;
(Ud. no es ciudadano o nacional de fos Estados Unidas)
2) You are a native of Mexico
and a citizen of _ Mexico
(Ud. es nativo de)
(y ciudadano de) ste
3) You entered the United States at or near Nogales, Arizona
(Ud. entré a los Estados Unidos en o cerca de)
on or about an unknown date in
{al dia o hacia esa fecha) February 1993
(fecha desconocido em » Febrero 1993)
=F
4. You were not then inspected by an ismigration officer. Z a
Ud. no fue inepeccionado entonces por un funcionario de inmigrecion nm 103
; ne i
OR
Th oo
=
ak ,
pe
L ie 1
|
LAMAR ed.
Form 1-221 (Rev. 6/12/92) N_ EXHIBIT 5 Page 1 of 5
RIV 0000188
ER - 122
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‘
.
U.S. Department of Justice
Case Sse 00m Document 32-5 Filed "oe Page 2 of 5
Pago 2
Order to Show Cause and Notice of Hearing
tmmigration and Naturalization Service
NOTICE OF RIGHTS AND CONSEQUENCES
The Immigration and Naturalization Service
that you are an alien not lawfully entitled to be in or
carefully and ask questions about
notice you do not understand. This
your rights as an alien In deportation proceedings,
and your obligations and the conditions with which
you must comply in order to protect your etigibility to
be considered for certain penafits.
Any statement you-make before an immigration Officer
may be used against you in any immigration or
administrative proceeding.
You may be represented, at no expense to the United
States government, by an attorney or other individual who
ig authorized and qualified to reprasent persons in these |
proceedings. You will be given a list.of organizations,
attorneys and other persons who have indicated their
availability to represent aliens in these proceedings.
Some of these persons may. represent you free of charge
or for a nominal fee. You may aiso be represented by 3
friend, relative, or other person having a pre-existing
relationship with you. provided his or her appearance is
permitted by the immigration judge.
You will have a hearing before an immigration judge,
scheduled no sooner than 14 days trom the date you
are served with this Order to Show Cause (unless
- you request in writing an earller hearing date). The
fourteen-day period is to allow you to seek an altorney oF
representative, if you desire to ba represented. At your
hearing, you will ba given the opportunity to admit or dany
any of all of the allegations in this Order to Show Cause,
and whether you are departable on the charges set forth
herein. You will have an opportunity to present evidence
and/or witnesses on your own penal, to examine evidence
presented by the government, to object, on proper legal
_ grounds, to the receipt of evidence and to cross examine
any witnesses presented by the government. — Any
‘document that you present that is in & foreign language
must be accornpanied by a certified English translation. It
ig your responsibility to ansure that any witnesses you
wish to present on your awn behalf be present at the
hearing.
be etigible. You will be
rights. .
EXHIBIT 5
AVISO DE DERECHOS Y CONSECUENCIAS
El Servicio de Inmigracién y Naturalizacién opine que
Ud. es un aextranjero ain derecho jegal a estar 0
permanecer en los Estados Unidos. Lea este aviso
culdadosamente y pregunte acerca de cualquier parte
doi mismo que no entienda. Este aviso ie explica los
derechos que tene como extranjero en fos tramites
de de on, y las obligaciones y condiciones que
debe cumpiir con ei fin de proteger gu deracho a que
ae le considere para recibir clertos beneficios.
Las declaraciones que haga ante un funcionario del
Servicio de Inmigracion podrén usarse en SU contra en
cualquier tramite administrative o ¢6 inmigracion.
Ud. puede ser representado, sin costo alguno para el
gobierno de los Estados Unidos, por un abogado o otra
persona autorizada y calificada para represantar-
personas 6n estos tramites. Ud. recibira una lista de las
antidades, abogades y demas personas dispuestas @
represantar a extranjeros en estos tramites, Algunas de
esas personas pueden representarle gratuitamente Oo por
honorarios nominales. También puede representaria un
amigo, familiar o ota persona con la qué tanga une
raiacién establecida, siempre qué el juez de inmigracion
permita su comparacencia. .
Ud. tandra una audiencia ante un juez de inmigracion,
fjada con un minimo de 14 dias a partir de la fecha
que se le expidio esta Orden (a menos ‘que Ud.
solicite por escrito una sudiencia en plazo aun
menor). El plazo de catorce dias le permitira conseguir
los servicios de un abogado oO representante, si lo desea.
En la audiencia se le dara la oportunidad de admitir © -
negar cualquiera de los alegatos de esta Orden o todos -
elios, y @ te informara si asta sujeto a deportacion per los
cargoes expresades 6n la misma. Ud. tendra la
oportunidad de presentar pruebas y testigos a favor suyo,
de exarninar las pruebas presentadas por 4! gobierno, de
oponerse, con base en los razonamientos legales
pertinentes, a ia admision de pruebas y de interrogar a ,
Todo dacumento que
presente en un idioma extranjero dabe ir acompafiado de
una traduccién certiticada al inglés. Sera rasponsabilidad
£| juez de inmigracion le intormaré sobre los recursos de
deportacion a los que tenga derecho y se le dard una
oportunidad sdecuada pare sobcitarlos. Si no esta de
acuerdo con ta decisién del jusz, puede apelarla. El juez
de inmigracion ie informara acerca da sus derechos de
.
%
Page 2 of 5
000013
RIV_ 0000189
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Case oe Document 32-5 Filed oe Page 3 of 5
U.S. Department of Justice
immigration and Naturalization Service _ Order ta Show Cause and Notice of Hearing
Continuation Sheet
(Hoje complamentaria}
Dated March 3, 1994
(Fechada)
Respondent Leopoldo RIVERA~Valdes File No. 472 697 680
(Demandado} (No, de registra)
d
AND on the basis of the foregoing allegations, it is charged that you are subject to deportation pursuant te the
following provision(s) of law:
(Y segiin los alegatos anteriores, se le acusa de estar sujeto a daportacién de acuerdo con ia(s} siguiente(s)
disposicion(es) de la ley:)
Section 241 (a)(1)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (Act) as ammended,
in that you entered the United States without inspection.
Secion 241:(a}(1)(B) de la Ley de Inmigracion y Nacionalidad (INA), segun
enmendada, en que Ud. entro a los Estados Unidos sin inspeccion)
«See attachment page
Vea Pagina adjunta
WHEREFORE, YOU ARE ORDERED to appear for a hearing before an Immigration Judge of the Executive Office for
Immigration Review of the United States Department of Justice at:
(POR LO CUAL, SE LE ORDENA comparecer ante un juez de inmigracién de la Oficina Ejecutiva de Revision de
inmigracién de! Departamento de Justicia de ios Estados Unidos en.)
. Address to be calendared and notice provided by the Office of the Immigra
(Diraccién) TION Judge (La Uricina dél Juez de inmigracion enviara un aviso a la
On direccion faciliteda por demandado con la fecha de la Atudiencia) m.
(Fecha) (Hora)
and show cause why you should not be deported from the United States on the charga(s) set forth above.
(y mostrar motivos justficantes por cual no deberia ser deportado de los Estados Unidos por fos cargos expresados
antenormente.} .
Dated _ March 3, 1994 Signature of issuing Officer
(Fechada) (Firma del funcionario qu¢la edpide} Joseph H.
spdbrer
City and State of Issuance __Portland, Oregon Title of issuing Officer Assistant District Directar,
(Ciudad y Estado donde se expide) {Titulo del funcionario que la expide) Investigations
ge $ ofS 000014
RIV_ 0000190
ER - 124
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__ Case seg Document 32-5 Filed "oe Page 4 of 5
. Pago 4
You afe required to be present at your deportation Esta obligado a asistir a fa audiencia de deportacion
hearing prepared to proceed. If you fail to appear at y de estar preparado para ella. Si no asiste a
any hearing after having been given written notice of the cualquiera de las audiencias después de haber sido
date, time and location of your hearing, you will be. notilicado por escnto de la fecha, hora y lugar de fa
orderad deported in your absence, it itis established that | audiencia, se ordenara su deportacién en su ausencia, si
you are deportable and you have been provided the se establece que puede ser deportado y que recibid los
appropriate notice of the hearing. avisos correspondientes.
You are required by law to provide immediately in writing La ley le obliga a informar inmediatamente por escrito de
an address (and telephones number, if. any) where you can gu domicilio {y numero de taléfono, de haberlo) donde
be contacted. You are required to provide written notice, © pueda ser localizado. Tiene la oblgacién de notilicar por
within five (5) days, of any change in your address or escrito, en el plazo de cinco (5) dids, cualquier cambio de
telaphone number to the office of the immigration Judge’ domicilia o de telafono a la Oficina del juez de inmigracion
listed in this notice. Any notices will be mailed only to tha que aparece en este aviso. os avisos se enviaran
last address provided by you. if you are represented, solamente a la ultima direccion facilitada por Ud. Si ha
notice will be sent to your representative. if you fail to decidido tener un representante, Se enviaran los avisos a
appear at the scheduled deportation hearing, you will be dicha persona. Si no asista a cualquiera de las audiencias
ordered deported in your absence # it ig established that despues de haber sido notificade por escrito de fa fecha,
you are deportable and you have been provided the hora y lugar de las mismas, $2 ordenara su daportacion
appropriate notice of the hearing. en su ausencia, si se establece que puede ser
deportade y que recidid el aviso de la audiencia.
if you are ordered deported in your absence, you cannot - Si se ordena su deportacién en Bu ausencia, no podra
geek to have that order rescinded except that: (a) you solicitar la anulacién de esa orden salvo que: a) pueda
may file a motion to reopen the hearing within 180 days prasentar un pedimento para tener otra audiencia en el
after the date of the order if you are able to show that plazo de 180 dias después de la fecha de la ordan si
your failure to appear was because of exceptional puede demostrar que no comparecié debido 4
circumstances, or (b) you may file a motion to reopen at © circunstancias excepcionales, 0 b) puede presentar un
any time after the date of the order if you can show that pedimento para tener otra audiencia en cualquier
you did not receive written notice of your hearing and you: momento después da la fecha de fa orden si puede
had provided your address and telephone number {or any demostrar que no recibid el aviso de la audiencia por
changes of your address or telephone number) as escrito y que habia facilitado su dirececién y nimero de
required, or that you were incarcerated and did not appear telefono (a notificado los cambios de direccién o numero
at your hearing through no fault of your own. [If you ~ de talafono) segun lo previsto, o que estaba ericarcelado
choose to seek judicial review of a deportation order = =-y NO comparecié a la audiencia por motivos ajenos a su
entered in your absence, you must file the petition for voluntad. Si decide solicitar una ravisién judicial de fa
review within 60 days (30 days if you ara convicted of an orden de departacién en su ausencia, debe presentar la
aggravated felony) after the date of the final order, and the solicitud de revision en el plazo de 60 dias {30 dias si ha
reviaw shall be confined to the issues of validity of the sido condanado por un delito grave con agravantes) a
notica provided to you, the reasons for your failure to —- partir de la fecha de la orden definitiva, y la revision sé
appear at your hearing, and wheather the government fynitara a decidir sit el aviso que recibid es valido, las
established that you are deportable. razones por las cuales no comparecié’ a la audiencia y si
: @] gobiemo demostrs que puede ser deportada.
In addition to the above, if you are ordered deported in Ademas de lo anterior, si se ordena su deportacién en su
your absence, you are ineligible for five (5) years from ausencia, no podra, en el plazo de cinco afios después
the date of the final order for the following reliel from de la fecha de la orden definitiva, tener derecho a los
deportation: voluntary departure under saction 242 [(b) of siguientes recursos: salida yoluntaria sequn la seccién 242
the immigration and Nationality Act (INA}: suspension of (b) de la ley de Inmigracién y Nacionalidad (INA);
deportation or voluntary departure under section 244 of suspension de la deportacién 0 de la salida voluntaria
the INA; and adjustmant of status under sections 246, sagun la seccion 244 de la INA, y ajuste de condicién
248, and 249 of the INA. saqun las sacciones 245, 248, y 249 de ja INA.
The copy of this Order to Show Cause served upon Esta copia de la Orden de Presentar Motivos
you is evidence of your alien registration while you Justificantes que le ha sido notificada constituye la
are under deportation proceedings. The law requires prueba de su registro de extranjero mientras sa lievan
that you carry it with you at all times. a cabo los tramites para su deportacion. La ley le
” gt, axige que ta lleye consigo en todo momento.
*
Form 1-221 (Rov, 6/12/02) N EXHIBIT 5 , Page 4 of 5
000015
RIV 0000191
ER - 125
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_ Case mse Document 32-5 Filed ‘oe Page 5 of5
This: Order to Show Cause “shall be filed with the Debe presentar esta Orden de Presontar Motivos
Immigration Judge of the Executive Office for immigration Justificantes a la Oficina Ejecutiva de Revision de
Review at the address provided below. You must report’ tnmigracién en la siguiente direccién. Oebe notificar
any changes of your address or telephone number in cualquier cambio de su domicitio o numero de teléfono por
writing to this office: . escrito a: . |
‘The Office of the Immigration Judge : |
1000 2nd Ave, Suite 3150
Seattle, WA 98104
Cartificate of Translation and Oral Notice
This Order to Show Cause DX was [1] was not read to the named alien in the Spanish language,
which is hisiher native language or @ language which ha/she understands.
Mar 3 _ 146 Slept Leite, Slaueter
ignature ~ Printed Name and title of Transiator
Address of Translator (if other than INS employee) or office location and division (Hf INS employee)
(if oral notice was not provided please explain)
: Alien’s
Manner of Service Right Thumb Print
wh Persona! Service to Alien
(1) Certified Mail - Retum Receipt-Requested
Ct Alien
(0 Counsel of Record
Certificate of Service
This Order to cae was served by me at Portland, OR on _ March 3 19 94.
at :O0 pm.
Lille, Sluuep her Lellear yugttte Sf FOO
Officer’s Signature Printed Name Tite Office
L£
Request for Prompt Hearing and Waiver of 14-Day Minimum Period
(Solicitud de audiencia inmediata y renuncia al plazo minimo de 14 dias)
To expedite determination of my case, | request an immediate hearing, and waive my right to the 14 day notice.
(Para agilizar la Wecisién sobre mi caso, solicito una audiencia inmediata y renuncio a mi derecho a un plazo minimo
de 14 dias.) |
Signature of Respondent Date
(Firma de demandado) (Fecha)
Form 1-221 (Rov. 6/12/92) N EMIT 2 Paes One 000016
RIV_0000192
ER - 126
USA V. RIVERA- VALDES 61
FORREST, Circuit Judge, joined by MILLER, Circuit
Judge, dissenting:
I agree that Jones v. Flowers applies to immigration
proceedings and, therefore, when the government learned
that its attempt to notify Leopoldo Rivera-Valdes of his
removal hearing failed, it was required to “take additional
reasonable steps to attempt to provide notice” of the hearing
to Rivera-Valdes, if “practicable to do so.” 547 U.S. 220,
225 (2006). But under the facts presented here, there were
no such steps available to the government, as Judge Bennett
explains. I also agree with Judge Bennett that Rivera-Valdes
cannot satisfy other requirements for collaterally attacking
his removal order. Accordingly, I disagree with the
majority’s decision to vacate the district court’s denial of
Rivera-Valdes’s motion to dismiss his indictment charging
him with illegal reentry, and I join Parts IIL.B and IV of
Judge Bennett’s dissent.