In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 20-1048 REBECA PEREZ-PEREZ, Petitioner, v. MONTY WILKINSON, Acting Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. No. A024-750-424 ____________________ ARGUED NOVEMBER 5, 2020 — DECIDED FEBRUARY 11, 2021 ____________________ Before SYKES, Chief Judge, and HAMILTON and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges. SCUDDER, Circuit Judge. Rebeca Perez-Perez entered the United States illegally in 1990. After she failed to appear at a deportation hearing scheduled in 1992, an immigration judge ordered Perez-Perez to be deported. Twenty-six years later, and still living in the United States, she moved to reopen her 1992 deportation proceedings under the mistaken belief that 2 No. 20-1048 the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Pereira v. Sessions of- fered her a path to relief from deportation. An immigration judge denied her motion and the Board of Immigration Ap- peals affirmed, finding reopening unwarranted and Perez-Pe- rez’s reliance on Pereira misplaced. We see no abuse of discre- tion in the Board’s refusal to reopen the 1992 deportation pro- ceedings and deny the petition for review. I A In May 1990, 18-year-old Rebeca Perez-Perez entered the United States from Mexico without inspection. She was ap- prehended within a few weeks after police stopped a van transporting nine undocumented immigrants through Illinois to New York. Federal immigration authorities personally served Perez-Perez with an Order to Show Cause charging her with unlawful entry and ordering her to appear for a de- portation hearing at a time and place “to be set.” They then released her on her own recognizance. Two years later, the Immigration and Naturalization Ser- vice initiated deportation proceedings and scheduled a hear- ing for July 2, 1992 before an immigration judge in Chicago. The immigration court sent a notice of the hearing to Perez- Perez on May 29 at the New York address she provided upon being released in 1990. The court rescheduled the hearing for July 30 at 10:00 a.m. and sent a second notice to Perez-Perez at the same address, informing her of the new date and warn- ing that she could be ordered deported for failure to appear at the hearing. The court sent this second notice by certified mail and a receipt bearing the signature of “Rebeca Perez,” postmarked on July 6, arrived at the Chicago immigration No. 20-1048 3 court on July 22. Perez-Perez insists, however, that she never received either notice and was unaware of the deportation hearing. Perez-Perez did not attend the July 30 hearing. The immi- gration judge found her deportable by clear and convincing evidence, noting in her absence that she failed to show any entitlement to relief from deportation and ordering her de- ported to Mexico. The immigration court sent Perez-Perez a copy of the decision and advised that the deportation order was final unless she appealed by August 17, 1992. No appeal followed. Twenty-six years passed before Perez-Perez—on October 26, 2018—filed a motion with the Chicago ...
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