Case: 17-60254 Document: 00514897098 Page: 1 Date Filed: 04/01/2019 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit No. 17-60254 FILED April 1, 2019 Lyle W. Cayce JOSE NICOLAS RAMOS-PORTILLO, Clerk Petitioner, v. WILLIAM P. BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Before JOLLY, ELROD, and WILLETT, Circuit Judges. JENNIFER WALKER ELROD, Circuit Judge: Jose Nicolas Ramos-Portillo, a native and citizen of El Salvador, petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) that dismissed his appeal of the denial of his motion to reopen. We deny Ramos- Portillo’s petition for review. I. In 1993, Ramos-Portillo entered the United States without inspection and was detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) near Laredo, Texas. Immigration officials recorded Ramos-Portillo’s information on Form I-213, entitled “Record of Deportable Alien,” which listed “Canton Case: 17-60254 Document: 00514897098 Page: 2 Date Filed: 04/01/2019 No. 17-60254 Paplonia, San Miguel, El Salvador” as his permanent residence but did not include a U.S. address. The INS released Ramos-Portillo after personally serving him with an Order to Show Cause and Notice of Hearing (OSC), written in both English and Spanish. The OSC informed Ramos-Portillo that he was deportable for entering without inspection under Section 241(a)(1)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and that a deportation hearing would “be calendared and notice provided by the office of the immigration judge.” The OSC also stated that notice would be “mailed to the address provided by [Ramos-Portillo].” On its face, the OSC warned Ramos-Portillo that he “DID NOT PROVIDE A UNITED STATES ADDRESS” and that he was “required by law to provide immediately in writing an address . . . where [he could] be contacted.” Immigration officials provided Ramos-Portillo with a Form EOIR-33, entitled “Change of Address Form,” with which he could provide his current mailing address to the immigration court. Ramos-Portillo signed a certificate of service, acknowledging his receipt of the OSC. During the four-month period after his release, Ramos-Portillo did not send the Form EOIR-33 to the immigration court and subsequently failed to appear at his deportation hearing. The immigration judge (IJ) determined that because Ramos-Portillo “failed to inform the Attorney General of [his] address, . . . no notice of the deportation hearing could be issued.” Accordingly, the IJ ordered Ramos-Portillo to be deported in absentia. More than 22 years later, Ramos-Portillo moved to reopen his proceedings and to rescind the in absentia deportation order. Ramos-Portillo insisted that he never received notice of the previous hearing and that there was no evidence that notice was sent to the Salvadoran address listed on the Form I-213. Therefore, Ramos-Portillo contended, he had “reasonable cause” for not appearing at the hearing. The IJ denied his motion, reasoning that the 2 Case: 17-60254 Document: 00514897098 Page: 3 Date Filed: 04/01/2019 No. 17-60254 immigration court was not required to mail the notice of the hearing because Ramos-Portillo “did not ...
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