Case: 19-60464 Document: 00515325460 Page: 1 Date Filed: 02/28/2020 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT No. 19-60464 ERIKA JISELA YANEZ-PENA, also known as Erika Jisela Pena-Yanez, Petitioner United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED v. February 28, 2020 Lyle W. Cayce WILLIAM P. BARR, U. S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Clerk Respondent Petition for Review of Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Before WIENER, GRAVES, and WILLETT, Circuit Judges. WIENER, Circuit Judge: Petitioner Erika Jisela Yanez-Pena seeks review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) denying her motion to reopen her removal proceedings. Yanez-Pena maintains that, in light of the Supreme Court’s holding in Pereira v. Sessions, 1 a notice to appear (“NTA”) is defective if it does not include the time and place of the initial hearing. She argues that the NTA she received was defective because it omitted the time and place of her initial removal hearing. Yanez-Pena further asserts that, because the NTA she received was defective, she is eligible for cancellation of removal or, 1 138 S. Ct. 2105 (2018). Case: 19-60464 Document: 00515325460 Page: 2 Date Filed: 02/28/2020 No. 19-60464 alternatively, that the order removing her in absentia is invalid. We hold that (1) the information statutorily required to be contained in an NTA may be supplied in more than one document, and (2) an NTA is perfected, and the stop- time rule is triggered, when the alien receives all required information, whether in one document or more. I. After being served with a deficient NTA, Yanez-Pena was subsequently mailed a “notice of hearing” that set forth the time and place of her initial removal hearing. This document (1) perfected her initial NTA by providing proper notice of her removal hearing and (2) terminated her “continued presence” in the United States pursuant to the stop-time rule, precluding Yanez-Pena’s eligibility for cancellation of removal. 2 The BIA therefore did not abuse its discretion by failing to reopen Yanez-Pena’s removal proceedings to allow her to seek cancellation of removal or to rescind the in absentia order of removal. II. Yanez-Pena is a native and citizen of Honduras who entered the United States on or about August 29, 2007 without inspection and admission by an immigration officer. On August 31, 2007, the Government initiated removal proceedings against Yanez-Pena by serving her personally with an NTA. The NTA ordered Yanez-Pena to appear at a removal hearing before an Immigration Judge at the address provided in the NTA at a time and date “to be set.” The NTA reflects that, at the time of service, Yanez-Pena was orally advised in Spanish of the consequences of failing to appear at her hearing. 2The stop-time rule serves to end an alien’s “continued presence” in the United States, see 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(d)(1)(A), which is required to seek cancellation of removal, see 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1)(A).This rule is discussed in depth below. 2 Case: 19-60464 Document: 00515325460 Page: 3 Date Filed: 02/28/2020 No. 19-60464 On ...
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