A Notice to Appear (NTA) is a charging document that is issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through any of its constituent agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Hence, the purpose of the Notice to Appear is to place an individual into deportation proceedings.
Accordingly, a newly-issued USCIS Policy Memorandum (PM) 602-0050.1 dated June 28, 2018 supersedes Policy Memorandum 602-0050, Revised Guidance for the Referral of Cases and Issuance of Notices to Appear in Cases Involving Inadmissible and Removable Aliens (dated November 7, 2011) and provides updates to USCIS’ guidelines for issuing NTAs and referring cases for deportation proceedings. This new PM provides that the Federal Government will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. Furthermore, the PM changes USCIS’ general manner of handling potentially removable foreign national matters. Previously, USCIS would refer these cases to ICE to establish whether or not removal proceedings should be initiated via an NTA. The revised PM will provide USCIS an expanded mandate for initiating and issuing NTAs on it own without referring related cases to ICE for review and determination. This will immediately place foreign nationals in removal proceedings if the individual is believed removable at the time of the denial.
It will now be the policy of USCIS to issue NTAs and Referrals to ICE (RTIs) in the following situations:
- National Security Cases;
- NTA Issuance Required by Statute or Regulation;
- Fraud, Misrepresentation, and Abuse of Public Benefits Cases;
- Criminal Cases; and
- Aliens Not Lawfully Present in the U.S. or Subject to other Grounds of Removability.
We will update this new policy guidance as more information becomes available.
For additional details regarding the new Policy Memorandum, please visit: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Laws/Memoranda/2018/2018-06-28-PM-602-0050.1-Guidance-for-Referral-of-Cases-and-Issuance-of-NTA.pdf
https://www.aila.org/advo-media/press-releases/2018/uscis-push-thousands-cases-deportation