DOJ Loses Deportation Hearing Notice Suit, Deepens Circuit Split

The Justice Department must rescind its order to deport a Honduran immigrant because her notice to appear in court didn’t include the time or date of her hearing, the Third Circuit said.

The government’s “two-step notice scheme” for immigrants awaiting removal proceedings doesn’t adhere to requirements set out by the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, according to an opinion by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

“The Justice Department prefers a system of notice to aliens different from the law passed by Congress and signed by the President,” Judge Paul B. Matey said in ...