Colindrez Ortega v. Bondi

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Decided: February 13, 2026
• Docket: 23-3496
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FEB 13 2026 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

VICTOR ELICEO COLINDREZ No. 23-3496 ORTEGA, Agency No. A208-763-837 Petitioner, MEMORANDUM* v.

PAMELA BONDI, Attorney General,

Respondent.

On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals

Argued and Submitted February 4, 2026 Phoenix, Arizona

Before: BERZON, CALLAHAN, and FRIEDLAND, Circuit Judges.

Petitioner Victor Eliceo Colindrez Ortega (“Colindrez Ortega”) petitions for

review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) denying

Colindrez Ortega’s motion to reopen and reissue the BIA’s decision in the appeal

of his asylum, withholding, and Convention Against Torture (“CAT”) claims.

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252. A motion to reissue an

agency decision is treated as a motion to reopen. See Coyt v. Holder, 593 F.3d

902, 904 n.1 (9th Cir. 2010). We review the denial of a motion to reopen for abuse

of discretion. Hernandez-Velasquez v. Holder, 611 F.3d 1073, 1077 (9th Cir.

2010). “An error of law is an abuse of discretion.” Id.

Petitioner Victor Eliceo Colindrez Ortega applied for asylum, withholding of

removal, and CAT protections. An Immigration Judge denied his application in

late 2020, and Colindrez Ortega appealed to the BIA. During most of the time that

Colindrez Ortega’s appeal was pending before the BIA, he was detained at an

immigration detention center. He was released in March of 2021. The BIA

dismissed his appeal and mailed its decision to the detention center in early April

of 2021. The decision was returned to sender a few days later, with a stamp that

indicated that the reason it was being returned was that Colindrez Ortega was no

longer in custody.

Nearly two years after the BIA dismissed his appeal, in February of 2023,

Colindrez Ortega filed a motion to reopen and reissue. He requested that the BIA

reissue its decision because he never received it. He had been under the

impression that his case was still pending until late January of 2023, when he

learned from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer that his appeal had

been dismissed and that he had consequently missed his opportunity to appeal the

2 23-3496 BIA’s decision to this court. The BIA denied Colindrez Ortega’s motion based on

his apparent failure to update his address with the BIA when he was released from

detention, and on the BIA’s apparent compliance with the statutory service

requirements. Colindrez Ortega timely filed a petition for review in this court.

While Colindrez Ortega’s petition for review was pending, our court decided

United States v. Rivera-Valdes, 157 F.4th 978 (9th Cir. 2025) (en banc). We

concluded that “the notice afforded to noncitizens subject to removal is governed

by the due process standards articulated in” Mullane v. Cent. Hanover Bank & Tr.

Co., 339 U.S. 306 (1950), and Jones v. Flowers, 547 U.S. 220 (2006). Rivera-

Valdes, 157 F.4th at 988. We clarified that when the government “learns that its

notice efforts have not succeeded, that knowledge triggers an obligation on [its]

part to take additional reasonable steps to effect notice, if it is practicable to do so.”

Id. at 989. We also held that the agency’s “compliance with statutory notice

requirements does not resolve whether notice is reasonably calculated under the

practicalities and peculiarities of an individual case,” id. (citation modified), and

that a petitioner’s “failure to comply with a statutory obligation to keep his address

updated d[oes] not forfeit his right to constitutionally sufficient notice,” id. at 991

(citation modified).

The BIA did not have the benefit of the decision in Rivera-Valdes when it

denied Colindrez Ortega’s motion to reopen and reissue. We remand to the BIA to

3 23-3496 reevaluate Colindrez Ortega’s motion to reopen and reissue in light of Rivera-

Valdes.

PETITION GRANTED and REMANDED.

4 23-3496