Although Congress allows the Government to seek removal of noncitizens in absentia, it tempers that power with process. Mandatory removal of a noncitizen who fails to attend a scheduled removal hearing is available. 8 U. S. C. § 1229a(b)(5)(A). But to obtain such a removal order, the Government must satisfy certain procedural prerequisites. See ibid. Relevant here, the Government must have provided the noncitizen with specifc forms of notice that contain specifc information. Ibid. (referencing §§ 1229(a)(1)–(2)). A noncitizen who has been ordered removed in absentia but has not received the required notice may seek to have the 2The Ninth Circuit's holding that Singh had shown that he failed to receive “notice in accordance with paragraph (1) or (2)” meant that it did not reach his alternative argument that he could seek rescission under § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(i). 24 F. 4th 1315, 1320 (2020). Neither do we. Page Proof Pending Publication CAMPOS-CHAVES v. GARLAND removal proceedings reopened and his removal order rescinded. § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii).
For years, the Government has failed to ensure that one form of required notice—a “notice to appear” (hereinafter NTA)—contains all the information the statute mandates.
See § 1229(a)(1). Specifcally, the Government has issued NTAs that lack the exact time (and date) of a noncitizen's removal hearing. Contra, § 1229(a)(1)(G)(i). This conspicuous omission has twice before garnered our attention in cases concerning a noncitizen's plea for discretionary relief from removal—most recently, just three Terms ago. See Niz- Chavez v. Garland, 593 U. S. 155 (2021); Pereira v. Sessions, 585 U. S. 198 (2018). And twice over, this Court made clear that when the Government issues an NTA, that document must contain the time-and-place particulars that the statute requires.
Today's cases arise because the Government persisted with its practice of issuing facially defective NTAs in the wake of our two prior pronouncements. But, apparently, the third time is the charm, for the majority now fnally blesses the Government's abject noncompliance with the statute's unequivocal command. The Court concludes that a noncitizen whose NTA does not contain the time-and-date information that § 1229(a)(1) requires has no recourse from an in absentia removal order if the Government subsequently provides some followup notice identifying the time and date of the proceeding he missed. Ante, at 450–451.
But that holding defes the plain text and context of the statute, sidesteps our precedents, and upends the careful in absentia removal framework Congress has crafted. So, I respectfully dissent.
I
Because a noncitizen may seek rescission only if he “demonstrates that [he] did not receive notice in accordance with paragraph (1) or (2) of section 1229(a),” § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii), I agree with the majority that the central question in this Page Proof Pending Publication litigation is what it means to receive notice “in accordance with paragraph (1) or (2),” ibid. As the parties frame the issue, the question is whether a noncitizen who has been ordered removed in absentia can seek rescission if the Government initially fails to identify a time and date for the removal hearing, as paragraph (1) requires, but provides such information at a later date, purportedly under paragraph (2).1 The majority reads “notice in accordance with paragraph (1) or (2) of section 1229(a),” § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii), to preclude a motion to reopen under these circumstances. In my view, the majority's reasoning is fawed and leads to the wrong conclusion.
A
To understand why, one must frst be clear-eyed about the Government's arguments, and also the majority's assertions. No one disputes that § 1229(a) establishes a mandatory process for the initiation of removal proceedings that compels the Government to provide “written notice” to any noncitizen it intends to remove as inadmissible or deportable.
Paragraph (1) states that “written notice (in this section referred to as a `notice to appear') shall be given in person . . . or, if personal service is not practicable, through service by mail.” § 1229(a)(1). That provision then proceeds to list not one or two but seven categories of information that must 1I will assume, arguendo, that rescission is the only legal argument implicated by these facts, given the parties' presentations. It is noteworthy, however, that the same core question also arises two subdivisions earlier—under § 1229a(b)(5)(A)—which authorizes the issuance of an in absentia removal order in the frst place only “after written notice required under paragraph (1) or (2) of section 1229(a) . . . has been provided to the [noncitizen],” and only if the Government “establishes by clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence that the written notice was so provided.” Thus, it is not at all clear that defects on the face of an NTA should be addressed as a matter of reopening and rescission (with the noncitizen bearing the burden) rather than as part of an assessment of the validity of the removal order itself, given the Government's burden of proof and the arguable facial invalidity of the notice.
Page Proof Pending Publication CAMPOS-CHAVES v. GARLAND be “specif[ied]” in the NTA—including “[t]he acts or conduct alleged to be in violation of [the] law,” § 1229(a)(1)(C); the fact that the noncitizen “may be represented by counsel” during the removal proceedings, § 1229(a)(1)(E); and “[t]he time and place at which the proceedings will be held,” § 1229(a)(1)(G)(i).
Paragraph (2) also requires the Government to provide “a written notice” to removable noncitizens under specifed circumstances. § 1229(a)(2). But, unlike paragraph (1), that provision applies only “in the case of any change or postponement in the time and place of such proceedings.” Ibid. It requires that “a written notice shall be given in person,” or “through service by mail” if “personal service is not practicable.” Ibid. Paragraph (2) further specifcally identifes the two categories of information that this particular notice must contain: “(i) the new time or place of the proceedings, and (ii) the consequences under section 1229a(b)(5) of this title of failing, except under exceptional circumstances, to attend such proceedings.” Ibid. So far, so good. Everyone agrees up to this point. The dispute here arises because the Government insists that its chronic failure to provide complete NTAs under § 1229(a)(1)—e. g., notices that contain time-and-date information—is of no moment with respect to any subsequent in absentia removal effort. So long as the Government provides the noncitizen with a paragraph (2) notice of the time and date of a removal hearing that the noncitizen subsequently misses, the noncitizen cannot reopen his removal proceeding, the Government claims.
Consider the cases before us. As the majority has explained, ante, at 452, each of the noncitizens here received a statutorily defcient NTA—defcient because it was missing the time and date of a removal proceeding. The NTAs the Government provided instead stated that information as either “TBD” or “to be set.” App. 10–12, 44–46, 53–54.
Both the majority and the Government acknowledge that Page Proof Pending Publication Page Proof Pending Publication such notices were defcient under the statute. See ante, at 461; Brief for Attorney General 26. Each of the noncitizens later received one or more followup documents that provided time-and-date information for a removal hearing. Each of the noncitizens ultimately failed to attend a hearing noticed by such a followup document and was ordered removed in absentia. And each of the noncitizens then sought to have his in absentia removal order rescinded on grounds of defcient notice.
According to the Government, having received notice of the time and date of their removal hearings through a subsequent notice issued per paragraph (2), these noncitizens cannot show that they “did not receive notice in accordance with paragraph (1) or (2) of section 1229(a).” § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii). Therefore, their removal proceedings cannot be reopened, or their removal orders rescinded. Brief for Attorney General 16–17.
The majority agrees with this reading of the statute, making three analytical moves to justify its conclusion. One: It declares that, for purposes of § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii), receipt of either an NTA or a paragraph (2) notice can suffce to defeat rescission of an in absentia removal order. Ante, at 457–459. The majority similarly reads § 1229a(b)(5)(A), the in absentia removal provision, to allow a noncitizen to be removed in absentia after he is provided with either form of notice. Ibid. (But the majority also appears to realize that, taken “[l]iterally,” this reading would allow a noncitizen to be removed without recourse whenever he receives a notice to appear, even if the Government later changes the hearing date without telling him. Ante, at 460.) So two: The majority declares that the notice “that matters” is the one that informed the noncitizen of the time and date of the hearing he missed. Ante, at 460–461; see also ante, at 460 (explaining that, under §1229a(b)(5)(A), “ `the written notice' ” the Government must provide “is tied to the singular proceeding missed, and at which the alien was `removed in absentia' ”). CAMPOS-CHAVES v. GARLAND Thus, three: The majority concludes that, despite the Government's provision of a defective NTA, all the noncitizens here “received a proper paragraph (2) notice for the hearings they missed and at which they were ordered removed,” so “they cannot seek rescission of their in absentia removal orders on the basis of defective notice.” Ante, at 450–451; see also ante, at 461–462.
As I explain in Parts I–B and I–C, infra, the primary problem with the majority's statutory analysis is that it unjustifably cleaves the paragraph (2) notice from paragraph (1)'s NTA requirement. In the majority's view, the Government can provide the statutorily required notice if it issues either form of notice to a noncitizen, so long as the notice the Government provided and the noncitizen received corresponds with the hearing the noncitizen missed. See ante, at 457–461. But this maneuver misreads the plain text of the statute in at least two critical respects: It ignores the fact that the statute Congress wrote makes an NTA issued under paragraph (1) indispensable, and, relatedly, it disregards the obviously supporting and secondary role that paragraph (2) notices play with respect to this statutory scheme.
B
The text of § 1229(a) plainly refutes the majority's contention that either an NTA under paragraph (1) or a subsequent notice under paragraph (2) suffces because the notice that “matters” for the purpose of in absentia removal is whichever one corresponds to the missed hearing at which removal is ordered. Ante, at 460–461.
Paragraph (1) unequivocally states that “[i]n removal proceedings under section 1229a of this title,” an NTA “shall be given” to the noncitizen. § 1229(a)(1) (emphasis added). An NTA is “the basis for commencing a grave legal proceeding,” akin to “ `an indictment in a criminal case [or] a complaint in a civil case.' ” Niz-Chavez, 593 U. S., at 163–164 (quoting Tr. of Oral Arg. in Pereira v. Sessions, O. T. 2017, No. 17–459, Page Proof Pending Publication p. 39; alteration in original). Nothing in the text of § 1229(a) betrays any hint that paragraph (1)'s dictates are optional. And the Government does not contest this; it acknowledges that an NTA under paragraph (1) of § 1229(a) is indispensable because this particular form of notice is what initiates the removal process as a matter of law. Tr. of Oral Arg. 49.
Furthermore, as I mentioned previously, a paragraph (1) NTA must contain certain specifc information, all of which Congress apparently thought important for a noncitizen facing removal to have at the outset. §§ 1229(a)(1)(A)–(G).
Much of the required information is unique to NTAs issued per paragraph (1). See, e. g., §§ 1229(a)(1)(C)–(D) (requiring notice of the “acts or conduct alleged to be in violation of law” and the “charges against the” noncitizen). Section 1229(a)(1) also treats all of the required information equally—none of the listed elements is more or less dispensable than any other.
To be sure, two pieces of information that Congress has mandated be provided in an NTA—the time and place of a removal proceeding, § 1229(a)(1)(G)(i), and the consequences of failing to appear, § 1229(a)(1)(G)(ii)—overlap in kind with information that must be provided in a paragraph (2) notice. But that fact does not undermine the mandatory nature of paragraph (1)'s requirements. We have already held that an NTA that does not contain the requisite time-and-place information does not qualify as an NTA at all. Pereira, 585 U. S., at 202. Nor does an NTA that is defcient in this way become retroactively transformed into one that satisfes § 1229(a)(1) if the Government backflls that missing information using a later notice. Niz-Chavez, 593 U. S., at 170. Instead, “the government must issue a single statutorily compliant document.” Id., at 163.
The indispensability of a complete NTA issued under paragraph (1) has consequences for the reasoning the majority puts forward here. It means that providing this particular form of notice always and inevitably “matters” to the in abPage Proof Pending Publication CAMPOS-CHAVES v. GARLAND sentia removal process, notwithstanding the majority's effort to hide that ball by directing our attention to whichever notice “informed the alien of the time and date of the hearing the alien missed, and at which he was ordered removed”— as if that is the notice that counts under the statute. Ante, at 460–461.
Put another way, whatever “notice in accordance with paragraph (1) or (2)” might mean in § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii), if the Government has to issue an NTA that satisfes paragraph (1), which it does, that language cannot mean the Government can choose to provide either a paragraph (1) or paragraph (2) notice and still be in compliance with the statute, as the majority suggests. And without that “either/or” pillar, the majority's analysis collapses.
C
The majority's reasoning further suggests that the indispensability of an NTA per the statute is essentially irrelevant because, for rescission purposes, an incomplete NTA can be cured with a paragraph (2) notice, standing alone. By its nature, however, a paragraph (2) notice cannot stand alone. This is apparent on the face of the relevant statutory provisions, which plainly establish, as the Ninth Circuit held, that “there can be no valid notice under paragraph (2) without valid notice under paragraph (1).” 24 F. 4th 1315, 1319 (2022) (case below). Given this, even if we read § 1229a(b) (5)(C)(ii)'s “paragraph (1) or (2)” language to preclude rescission when noncitizens receive either a statutorily compliant NTA under paragraph (1) or a valid hearing notice under paragraph (2), the noncitizens here did not receive either one. The majority's contrary conclusion rests on a misconception of the nature of the notice that paragraph (2) requires.
Analogizing to another common situation: A paragraph (2) notice is the functional equivalent of a change order. See Page Proof Pending Publication Page Proof Pending Publication 1A P. Bruner & P. O'Connor, Construction Law § 4:1, p. 282 (2016) (describing a “ `change' ” in the construction context as “ `an alteration to an existing contract requirement concerning work that is already required to be done' ”). That is what the plain text of § 1229(a)(2) calls for, and it is how a paragraph (2) notice plainly operates. Assuming that the Government has complied with its pre-existing obligation under paragraph (1) to provide written notice of the noncitizen's duty to appear at removal proceedings at a particular time and place, paragraph (2) requires the Government to issue a supplemental notice “specifying . . . the new time or place of the proceedings” and reiterating the consequences of failing to attend, if sometime after the issuance of the NTA the time or place of the scheduled removal hearing changes. § 1229(a)(2) (emphasis added).
The analogy to change orders in the construction context illuminates the unavoidably interconnected relationship between a compliant NTA issued under paragraph (1) and the notice the Government must provide under paragraph (2).
Ask any homebuilder. A customer who wants a new den, for example, submits a written request to the builder that specifes the details of her order—e. g., construct a 12-by 12-foot room with two 48-inch fxed picture windows at a designated spot on the back of her house. Those are the indispensable terms of the mandate. But, if the customer later changes her mind about some aspect of this project— say, she wants the windows moved, or she wants the room enlarged to 16 by 16 feet—she submits a written change order notifying the builder of those particular alterations. The change order supplements the original request; it does not entirely supplant it. And the change order supersedes only the particular terms of the initial directive that have been changed. Consequently, the change order is only cognizable in relation to what came before.
So it is here. As the majority concedes, Congress has mandated that the Government, frst, provide noncitizens CAMPOS-CHAVES v. GARLAND with a written NTA that specifcally and comprehensively lists the terms of the removal proceeding mandate. That notice has to include the time and place of the noticed removal proceeding. § 1229(a)(1)(G)(i). Congress has also authorized the Government to make certain adjustments to that notice under specifed circumstances, but only if the Government similarly provides a written notice of those altered terms. That is the work of a notice issued under paragraph (2). And, just as in the construction context, a paragraph (2) notice of the changed time or place has no effect independent of the original directive. A notice of change under paragraph (2) issues only if there is a changed circumstance, and it exists merely to update the terms that were previously set.
Setting aside analogous circumstances and using a dictionary to bear down on the words Congress used in § 1229(a)(2) leads to the same result. As a reminder, paragraph (2) provides that “[i]n removal proceedings . . . , in the case of any change or postponement in the time and place of such proceedings, . . . a written notice shall be given in person” to the noncitizen, and that notice must “specif[y] . . . the new time or place of the proceedings” and the consequences of failing to attend. §§ 1229(a)(2)(A)(i)–(ii) (emphasis added). Homing in on the word “change,” the majority frst accuses the noncitizens of “tak[ing] too narrow a reading of th[at] term,” since “change” can mean simply “ `to replace,' ” “ `to switch,' ” “to `alter,' or to `modify.' ” Ante, at 462. As further support for this broad interpretation of change, the majority points to “any”—the provision says “any change”— which, according to the majority, suggests that Congress contemplated that the paragraph (1) NTA could omit the time and place of the removal proceeding, with the paragraph (2) notice “chang[ing]” that “TBD” to the actual time and place. Ante, at 463.
But the modifer “any” does not justify the majority's over- broad reading of “change or postponement” in § 1229(a) Page Proof Pending Publication (2)(A). It is true that “the word `any' has `an expansive meaning.' ” Patel v. Garland, 596 U. S. 328, 338 (2022) (quoting Babb v. Wilkie, 589 U. S. 399, 405, n. 2 (2020)). But “any” does work under the noncitizens' reading of paragraph (2), too. It helps cover all potential changes to the preexisting time and place that paragraph (1) requires the Government to designate. Especially when one considers the entire operative phrase—“any change or postponement in the time and place of such proceedings”—“any change” makes clear that notice must also issue when a hearing time is moved up, or when a venue is switched from one location to another.
In any event, the majority does not, and cannot, dispute that an ordinary meaning of “change” is “the action of replacing something with something else of the same kind or with something that serves as a substitute.” Webster's Third New International Dictionary 374 (1993). The notice provisions at issue here refect that kind of substitution on their face, because § 1229(a) mandates in paragraph (1) that the Government provide noncitizens with a complete NTA (with the time and place for the removal proceeding included) at the outset. The paragraph (2) notice only comes into play “in the case of any change . . . in the time and place of such proceedings.” § 1229(a)(2)(A). Thus, among the various defnitional possibilities the majority offers, it is this defnition that makes the most sense of this particular statute. See Abramski v. United States, 573 U. S. 169, 179, n. 6 (2014) (“[C]ourt[s] should not interpret each word in a statute with blinders on, refusing to look at the word's function within the broader statutory context”).
In short, use of the word “change” in the context of a statute that frst requires something—e. g., the setting of a time and place—presumes the earlier existence of that thing to be swapped out. The ordinary meaning of “postponement,” too, requires the previous selection of a particular date or time. See Webster's Third New International Dictionary, at 1773 (defning “postpone” as “to hold back to a later time”). Page Proof Pending Publication CAMPOS-CHAVES v. GARLAND And the word “new” runs in the same circles. “New” can mean “other than the former or old.” Id., at 1522. So a “new” time likewise implies the earlier existence of an “old” time.
Thus, dictionary defnitions indicate that in order for a notice issued under paragraph (2) to “change” the time or place of a proceeding to a “new” time or place, there must have been an old time or place to begin with. If the NTA did not comply with the statute in this way, then it is impossible for paragraph (2) notice to comply, either.
Even so, defnitions alone often “do not equip us to resolve” a case. Kucana v. Holder, 558 U. S. 233, 245 (2010). We have long understood that words with “ `many dictionary defnitions . . . must draw [their] meaning[s] from . . . context.' ” Ibid. (quoting Ardestani v. INS, 502 U. S. 129, 135 (1991)). “[S]tatutes must be read as a whole,” and, here, notice under paragraph (2) “does not exist in a vacuum.”
Guam v. United States, 593 U. S. 310, 316 (2021) (internal quotation marks omitted).
That brings me back to where I started—with the observation that, when read in context, paragraph (2) requires a preceding written notice (like a standard change order does) and thus presupposes a compliant NTA. Not to belabor the point, but it bears noting that all the relevant context clues support this reading of the statute.
For example, notice under paragraph (2) follows the required NTA under paragraph (1) in the text of the statute. See § 1229(a). This ordering suggests the central role of NTAs in Congress's removal scheme, with paragraph (2) notices playing only a supporting part. Moreover, while paragraph (2) notices can and do work together with NTAs to convey essential information to noncitizens, they are hardly a team of equals. Also, a paragraph (2) notice, which contains far less content than an NTA, is patently supplemenPage Proof Pending Publication tal insofar as it may not ever need to be issued. See § 1229(a)(2)(A).
The majority errs in interpreting “notice in accordance with paragraph (1) or (2),” § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii), by treating “or” as a standard disjunctive construct. See ante, at 457. That might generally be so. But here, the word “or” simply cannot be taken to mean that either notice in accordance with paragraph (1) or in accordance with paragraph (2) suffces under the statute because those two notices are by no means equivalent alternatives, as I have explained.2 It is clear on the face of this statute, then, that a paragraph (2) notice merely alters information that Congress has required be given previously, and, “especially when properly read in sequence as integral parts of a whole,” the statute plainly “anticipates a predicate” NTA that complies with Congress's mandate. Guam, 593 U. S., at 317 (internal quotation marks and alteration omitted). As its “text and place within [the] comprehensive statutory scheme” show, id., at 320, a notice under paragraph (2) cannot exist in the absence of a compliant NTA. The statute simply does not contemplate it.
II
Our precedents in Pereira and Niz-Chavez addressed the relevant notice provisions and what they require of the Government, yet the majority barely pauses to acknowledge this. Both Pereira and Niz-Chavez concerned noncitizens' eligibility for a form of discretionary relief called cancellation of removal and the operation of the so-called stop-time rule. See §§ 1229b(b)(1), (d)(1)(A). Noncitizens who have accrued 2Considered in context, the word “or” in § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii) actually reinforces both the centrality of an NTA and the conditional nature of a paragraph (2) notice. Recall that a paragraph (2) notice is required only in the event of a change or postponement of the removal proceeding. §1229(a)(2). The “or” in “paragraph (1) or (2)” thus expresses—in a way that “and” could not—that a notice under paragraph (2) will sometimes, but not always, be required.
Page Proof Pending Publication CAMPOS-CHAVES v. GARLAND 10 years of continuous physical presence in the United States may be eligible for cancellation of removal, but under the stop-time rule, that period of continuous physical presence ends when the noncitizen “is served a notice to appear under section 1229(a).” Ibid. Then as now, the Government had failed to send noncitizens NTAs that included time-and-place information as § 1229(a)(1) requires.
In Pereira, we held that “[a] notice that does not inform a noncitizen when and where to appear for removal proceedings is not a `notice to appear under section 1229(a)' and therefore does not trigger the stop-time rule.” 585 U. S., at 202. In Niz-Chavez, we rejected the Government's view that a defcient paragraph (1) NTA is “complete and the stop- time rule kicks in whenever [the Government] fnishes delivering all the statutorily prescribed information.” 593 U. S., at 160. Rather, we said, the Government needs to supply noncitizens with a single, fully compliant NTA if it wishes to take advantage of the stop-time rule. Id., at 172.
In both of those cases, we interpreted the notice regime just as the noncitizens do here. As the majority acknowledges, ante, at 463, we specifcally observed in Pereira that, “[b]y allowing for a `change or postponement' of the proceedings to a `new time or place,' paragraph (2) presumes that the Government has already served a `notice to appear under section 1229(a)' that specifed a time and place as required by § 1229(a)(1)(G)(i).” 585 U. S., at 210. “Otherwise,” we said, “there would be no time or place to `change or postpone.' ” Ibid. (alteration omitted). We thought then that the Government could only “exercise that statutory authority after it has served a notice to appear specifying the time and place of the removal proceedings.” Id., at 218 (emphasis added).
In Niz-Chavez, we doubled down. We recognized that “Congress expressly contemplated [the] possibility” that the Government would “issu[e] notices to appear with all the information § 1229(a)(1) requires—and then amen[d] the time or place information if circumstances required it” using Page Proof Pending Publication § 1229(a)(2). 593 U. S., at 159. We explained that “once the government serves a compliant notice to appear, [the statute] permits it to send a supplemental notice amending the time and place of an alien's hearing if logistics require a change.” Id., at 170 (emphasis added). We also suggested that an alternative reading would effectively nullify Congress's work to change the notice regime from one permitting the Government to specify the time and place for a noncitizen's hearing “ `in the order to show cause or otherwise,' ” to one where “time and place information must be included in a notice to appear, not `or otherwise.' ” Id., at 167 (quoting § 1252b(a)(2)(A) (1994 ed.); emphasis in original). That point is as salient now as it was then.
Our statements in Pereira and Niz-Chavez demonstrate that the Court twice before thought obvious the reading of the statute the noncitizens here propose. Yet the majority now cries dicta. The Court says the meaning of § 1229(a)(2) was not at issue in Pereira, which concerned the “ `narrow question' ” of the operation of the stop-time rule. Ante, at 463. To be sure, “we are not necessarily bound by dicta should more complete argument demonstrate that the dicta is not correct.” Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 568 U. S. 519, 548 (2013). Here, however, “more complete argument” has served only to confrm our previous statements.
The argument the majority accepts today brushes aside what we said in Pereira without explaining why our state- ments—which are due a modicum of respect in any event, see Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 399 (1821)—were mistaken. Addressing Niz-Chavez in only a footnote, the majority maintains that our observation that paragraph (2) notices allow the Government to change a “chosen time and place in the NTA . . . remains true even if there are other instances in which paragraph (2) notices may issue.” Ante, at 464, n. 1. But that assertion simply fails to engage with the antecedent point—that Congress expected the Government to issue compliant NTAs frst—and the implications it has for the interpretation of § 1229(a)(2).
Page Proof Pending Publication CAMPOS-CHAVES v. GARLAND And, in the end, we were not wrong. Under the uncomplicated statutory reading that Pereira and Niz-Chavez endorsed, the noncitizens here are not precluded from seeking rescission of their in absentia removal orders, because § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii) permits “a motion to reopen [removal proceedings] fled at any time” if the noncitizen can demonstrate that he “did not receive notice in accordance with paragraph (1) or (2)” of § 1229(a). Neither form of notice was provided under the circumstances presented here. As all agree, none of the noncitizens ever received a notice in accordance with paragraph (1). See Pereira, 585 U. S., at 202. And because a paragraph (2) notice presumes a statutorily compliant paragraph (1) notice, none of the noncitizens received notice in accordance with paragraph (2), either. That is true no matter how many would-be paragraph (2) notices the Government sent.3
III
One fnal faw bears mentioning. By snipping the thread that connects the notices Congress required in paragraphs (1) and (2) of § 1229(a), today's decision mangles the broader statutory scheme.
A
The long and short of this critique is that reading the statute in the way the majority does fails to fully account for Congress's objectives when it comes to removal procedures, which have long included ensuring that noncitizens facing removal receive notice. The Government's statutory obligation to provide notice in the removal context has been a crucial aspect of federal immigration policy since at least the early 1950s. To this end, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952 specifcally provided that a noncitizen must be “given a reasonable opportunity to be present at 3By the same logic, the Government should not have been able to obtain the noncitizens' in absentia removal orders under § 1229a(b)(5)(A) in the frst place.
Page Proof Pending Publication [the] proceeding” in which his deportability or removability is to be determined. § 242(b), 66 Stat. 209, codifed at 8 U. S. C. § 1252(b) (1952 ed.). With respect to in absentia removal, the INA further provided that if the noncitizen “without reasonable cause fail[ed] or refuse[d] to attend or remain in attendance,” a “special inquiry offcer” could “proceed to a determination in like manner as if the alien were present.” Ibid. Notably, at that time, an immigration offcer's decision to remove a noncitizen in absentia was discretionary. Ibid. In 1990, however, Congress amended the INA to provide, in certain circumstances, for mandatory in absentia deportation of noncitizens who failed to appear for their proceedings. See Immigration Act of 1990, § 545(a), 104 Stat. 5061–5065, codifed at 8 U. S. C. § 1252b(c)(1) (1994 ed.). Nonetheless, the Government still routinely encountered “[p]rocedural [i]ssues” in its efforts to remove inadmissible or deportable noncitizens. H. R. Rep. No. 104–469, pt. 1, p. 122 (1996). Those issues included deportable or inadmissible noncitizens sometimes “frustrat[ing] removal through taking advantage of certain procedural loopholes” in the process. For example, some noncitizens facing removal would “simply fail to appear for their deportation hearing,” and “some immigration judges . . . decline[d] to exercise their authority to order an alien deported in absentia” due to “lapses (perceived or genuine) in the procedures for notifying aliens of deportation proceedings.” Ibid.4 4This Court has previously described the notice regime of that era. For example, the Government back then initiated removal proceedings by issuing a written notice called an “ `order to show cause.' ” Niz-Chavez v. Garland, 593 U. S. 155, 167 (2021). By statute, the Government was permitted to specify the time and place for a noncitizen's hearing “ `in the order to show cause or otherwise.' ” Ibid. (citing 8 U. S. C. § 1252b(a) (2)(A) (1994 ed.); emphasis in original). But this statutory language provided fexibility, and meant that “orders to show cause did not necessarily include time-and-place information.” Pereira v. Sessions, 585 U. S. 198, 214, n. 9 (2018).
Page Proof Pending Publication CAMPOS-CHAVES v. GARLAND Congress endeavored to address these kinds of problems, among other things, when it established the mandatory in absentia removal provisions that govern these cases as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). See § 304(a), 110 Stat. 3009– 587 to 3009–590; see also 8 U. S. C. §§ 1229(a), 1229a. Notably, however, Congress did not absolve the Government of its obligation to provide notice of removal proceedings. Nor did it make receipt of notice irrelevant to whether a noncitizen who does not show up to his hearing can later contest his removal. To the contrary, notice features prominently in IIRIRA's in absentia removal process—it is specifcally mentioned in four of the fve statutory subdivisions that constitute Congress's in absentia mandatory removal directives.5 And, rather than devising a process in which a non- citizen who misses his hearing must be removed regardless, Congress has made clear that the consequences for failing to appear for scheduled removal proceedings can turn on whether notice was provided, or received, under the terms of the statute. See, e. g., § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii).
B
The resulting in absentia removal scheme constitutes a balancing of interests and obligations that is well within Congress's policy prerogatives. Congress has also clearly expressed its intent in this regard, for when paragraphs (1) and (2) of § 1229(a) are read naturally, in context, and with an understanding of Congress's objectives, the entire scheme fows seamlessly.
5See § 1229a(b)(5)(A) (authorizing in absentia removal only for noncitizens who have been provided “written notice required under paragraph (1) or (2) of section 1229(a)”); (B) (requiring “[n]o written notice” before in absentia removal if a noncitizen failed to provide his address); (C) (permitting motions to reopen at any time if a noncitizen demonstrates that he “did not receive notice in accordance with paragraph (1) or (2) of section 1229(a)”); (D) (limiting judicial review to, inter alia, the “validity of the notice provided to the” noncitizen).
Page Proof Pending Publication To recap: If the Government issues, and the noncitizen receives, the statutorily required notice—i. e., the notice mandated by paragraph (1) of § 1229(a), or, when necessary, by paragraphs (1) and (2)—yet the noncitizen fails to appear at the scheduled removal proceeding, she is subject to a mandatory, nonrescindable removal order. But if the Government fails to provide notice in accordance with the statute, the in absentia removal order is subject to reconsideration, meaning that, upon request, the noncitizen's removal proceedings may be reopened.6 This symmetry of notice-related mandates and accountability incentivizes both noncitizens and the Government to follow Congress's dictates. It also facilitates effcient removal of deportable and inadmissible noncitizens while simul taneously preserving the fairness and procedural integrity of the removal process in individual cases. The majority's interpretation, which basically amounts to a refusal to accept these policy choices, supplants this dual objective.
Indeed, and perhaps most concerning, under the majority's reading of the statutory provisions at issue here, Congress's goals are plainly thwarted, for a noncitizen may be removed in absentia even if the Government fails to provide him with information that complies in both form and substance with Congress's commands. The removal scheme's orderly progression actually breaks down when the Government fails, in systemic fashion, to send statutorily compliant NTAs.
And for years, that is exactly what has happened, because the NTAs that the Government routinely issued lacked the time, date, or place of a noncitizen's initial removal hearing. Brief for Attorney General 50.
6It is far from clear that rescission is automatic under the statute. See § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii) (providing that “[s]uch an order may be rescinded” (emphasis added)). Relevant regulations, too, give an immigration judge “discretion to deny a motion to reopen even if the moving party has established a prima facie case for relief.” 8 CFR § 1003.23(b)(3) (2021). But that question is not before the Court.
Page Proof Pending Publication CAMPOS-CHAVES v. GARLAND Rather than just complying with § 1229(a)'s notice requirements, the Government now urges us to interpret § 1229a(b) (5)(C)(ii) to preclude reopening of certain in absentia removal proceedings, out of a worry that “hundreds of thousands” of individuals who have “been ordered removed in absentia would be able to undo those orders” under the noncitizens' reading of the statute.
Ibid. But this is a problem of the Government's own making. And it is completely within the Government's power to fx. At the very least, it seems wildly counterintuitive for this Court to adopt the Government's permissive reading of the statute—in contravention of its plain text—so as to help the Government avoid the prescribed consequences of its chronic noncompliance with Congress's mandates.
There is also no rational limiting principle. Today, the Government opts to omit from the NTA the time and date of the removal proceeding. The majority now says that's no problem—the Government may nevertheless seek and receive binding in absentia removal so long as the noncitizen received a paragraph (2) notice that flled in the blanks. See ante, at 458–460, 461–462. But what prevents the Government from removing a noncitizen whose notice to appear is defcient in other critical respects? The “next chapter in the same story,” Niz-Chavez, 593 U. S., at 159, might involve a noncitizen whose notice to appear also failed to inform her that she can be represented by counsel in removal proceedings. See § 1229(a)(1)(E). That information is required only in paragraph (1) notices, not paragraph (2) notices. By the majority's logic, a noncitizen in that position could be ordered removed in absentia and barred from seeking rescission of her order without ever being informed of her ability to be represented by an attorney. Even the Government has conceded that nothing in its reading of the statute prevents that outcome. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 17–21, 50–51.
One can imagine other troubling scenarios; for example, a notice to appear that omits the charges against a noncitizen. Page Proof Pending Publication See § 1229(a)(1)(D). That information, too, is required only in a paragraph (1) notice. If a noncitizen receives such a defective NTA followed by a purported paragraph (2) notice and fails to attend her hearing, may she be removed in absentia having never learned the charges against her? The Government assures us that statutory safeguards prevent that outcome at the very least. It says that in those circumstances, it could not satisfy its burden of proving to an immigration judge by “ `clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence' ” that the noncitizen is removable. Reply Brief 23 (quoting § 1229a(b)(5)(A)). But what if the removal hearing is held in absentia, and the Government simply informs the immigration judge of the charges against the noncitizen at that time? Would it matter that the absent noncitizen was kept completely in the dark about the charges? The majority gives no answer, other than that noncitizens “could have raised [this issue] in a hearing that they chose to skip.” Ante, at 465.
The majority waves away these legitimate concerns about how far the Government can go in deviating from what § 1229(a)(1) or (2) requires, by blithely declaring that today's decision does not “free” the Government of its obligation to provide a compliant NTA. Ibid. But it is hard to square that statement with what is actually happening on the ground. The Government has already fouted its NTA obligation for years now. Though the Court might not be expressly authorizing this state of affairs, today's blunting of the statutory consequence for the Government's systemic failure to comply with § 1229(a) removes any possible incentive for the Government to change course now.
Finally, the majority says that a noncitizen who receives a noncompliant NTA followed by a paragraph (2) notice can always “attend the hearing” to protest the defcient NTA.
Ibid. That is entirely beside the point. Congress put the burden on the Government to send complete NTAs to noncitizens facing removal every time it initiates a removal proPage Proof Pending Publication CAMPOS-CHAVES v. GARLAND ceeding. Instead of requiring the Government to shoulder that burden, the majority effectively shifts it onto the noncitizens—individuals perhaps unfamiliar with this country and its laws—tasking them with the responsibility of addressing the Government's mistakes. That is not the statute Congress wrote.
* * * When the Government issues an NTA under paragraph (1) that lacks time and date information but follows up with a notice under paragraph (2) that sets the time and date of a removal hearing that the noncitizen subsequently misses, I fully understand the instinct to conclude that the Government's initial lack of compliance was insignifcant. Some might even think it unfair that noncitizens could seek rescission of their removal orders based on an initial notice that seems only technically defective, given the Government's subsequent action. My response to them is simple: Congress thought otherwise. The statute it wrote specifcally establishes the what, when, and how of the notice that is due to noncitizens facing removal. The statute also allows noncitizens who have been ordered removed in absentia to seek rescission of the removal order if the required notice is not received. I can no more judge that policy decision than I can change it. Today, the Court makes the unfortunate mistake of doing both.
Page Proof Pending Publication Page Proof Pending Publication Reporter’s Note The attached opinion has been revised to refect the usual publication and citation style of the United States Reports. The revised pagination makes available the offcial United States Reports citation in advance of publication. The syllabus has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader and constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court. A list of counsel who argued or fled briefs in this case, and who were members of the bar of this Court at the time this case was argued, has been inserted following the syllabus. Other revisions may include adjustments to formatting, captions, citation form, and any errant punctuation. The following additional edits were made: None