Summary
The Seventh Circuit dismissed Asucena Velazquez-Olais’s petition for review for lack of jurisdiction. The court held that an email from a Department of Homeland Security field office declining to reopen or cancel an executed 2018 removal order was not a final order of removal reviewable under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a). The court noted that a new removal process had begun through a Notice to Appear and that any new removal order could be subject to judicial review.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether an email from a DHS field office declining to reopen or revisit an executed 2018 removal order is a reviewable final order of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a).
- Whether the Seventh Circuit had jurisdiction to review the executed 2018 removal order after the statutory review period had expired and the order had been carried out.
Holdings
- An email from a DHS field office declining to revisit an executed removal order is not an order of removal or a final order of removal reviewable under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a).
- Once a removal order has been executed, it cannot be re-executed, and the court lacks jurisdiction under § 1252(a) to review an email declining to reopen that completed order.
Key quotations
“There is just nothing to review. The 2018 order has been executed.” (at 2)
“But she is not now subject to an order of removal, so we lack jurisdiction under §1252(a).” (at 3)
Factual background
Velazquez-Olais entered the United States without inspection before 2018 and came to federal authorities' attention after an Illinois conviction for possessing cocaine with intent to deliver. DHS entered a Final Administrative Removal Order, and she was removed to Mexico on August 10, 2018. After she returned to the United States and an Illinois court amended her conviction to simple possession, her counsel asked DHS to reopen and cancel the prior order, but a Chicago Deportation Officer declined by email. DHS subsequently restarted removal proceedings by issuing a Notice to Appear in July 2025.
Procedural history
The Department of Homeland Security entered a Final Administrative Removal Order against Velazquez-Olais in 2018, and she was removed to Mexico on August 10, 2018. After a state court amended her drug conviction, her counsel asked a Chicago immigration official to reopen and cancel the removal order; a Deportation Officer responded by email that the Chicago office would not revisit the order. She petitioned the Seventh Circuit under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a) to review the email. The court dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction.