| Mandatory
Surrender Proposed for Persons With Final Removal Orders
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is
proposing a rule that will require aliens who are subject to
final orders of removal to surrender himself or herself within
30 days to INS once those orders become final. Anyone
who fails to surrender as required will be denied
discretionary relief from removal—including asylum,
adjustment to permanent resident status, change of status,
waivers of inadmissibility for immigrants, cancellation of
removal, voluntary removal, registration of LPR status—at
any time while he or she remains in the United States, and for
a period of ten years after the alien’s departure from the
United States. This rule also establishes procedures for
surrender to INS.
In the past, 89 percent of non-detained individuals with
final orders of removal failed to surrender for deportation
when ordered to do so. Under this rule, persons not
detained at the time an order of removal becomes final will
have a legal obligation to surrender to INS within 30 days of
the issuance of an administratively final order of removal.
The proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register
for public comment. This rule is substantially the same
as a proposed rule published by former Attorney General Janet
Reno on September 4, 1998. However, that rule only would
have applied to individuals facing removal orders in the
future, after publication of the final rule. It
consequently would have exempted hundreds of thousands of
individuals currently in removal proceedings, even though
there would be many opportunities to provide the necessary
notice to the alien. The new proposed rule includes
aliens already in proceedings because they will receive
legally adequate notice.
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