Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/17-459_1o13.pdf
Page Number: 20

16 

PEREIRA v. SESSIONS 

Opinion of the Court 

der,”  as  used  in  the  stop-time  rule,  can  only  mean  “in
accordance with” or “according to,” for it connects the stop-
time  trigger  in  §1229b(d)(1)  to  a  “notice  to  appear”  that 
contains  the  enumerated  time-and-place 
information 
described  in  §1229(a)(1)(G)(i).    See  18  Oxford  English
Dictionary  950  (2d  ed.  1989)  (defining  “under”  as  “[i]n 
accordance  with”);  Black’s  Law  Dictionary  1525  (6th  ed.
1990)  (defining  “under”  as  “according  to”).  So  construed, 
the stop-time rule applies only if the Government serves a
“notice to appear”  “[i]n accordance with” or “according to”
the  substantive  time-and-place  requirements  set  forth  in 
§1229(a).  See  Kirtsaeng  v.  John  Wiley  &  Sons,  Inc.,  568 
U. S.  519,  530  (2013)  (internal  quotation  marks  omitted). 
Far from generating any “degree of ambiguity,” post, at 4, 
the  word  “under”  provides  the  glue  that  bonds  the  stop-
time  rule  to  the  substantive  time-and-place  requirements
mandated by §1229(a). 

C 

The  Government  argues  that  surrounding  statutory 
provisions  reinforce  its  preferred  reading.  See  Brief  for 
Respondent 25–27.  It points, for instance, to two separate 
provisions  relating  to 
in  absentia  removal  orders: 
§1229a(b)(5)(A),  which  provides  that  a  noncitizen  may  be 
removed  in  absentia  if  the  Government  has  provided
“written  notice  required  under  paragraph  (1)  or  (2)  of 
section  1229(a)”;  and  §1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii),  which  provides 
that, once an in absentia removal order has been entered, 
the noncitizen may seek to reopen the proceeding if, inter 
alia,  he  “demonstrates  that  [he]  did  not  receive  notice  in
accordance  with  paragraph  (1)  or  (2)  of  section  1229(a).”
According to the Government, those two provisions use the
distinct phrases “required under” and “in accordance with”
as  shorthand  for  a  notice  that  satisfies  §1229(a)(1)’s  re-
quirements,  whereas  the  stop-time  rule  uses  the  phrase
“under  section  1229(a)”  to  encompass  a  different  type  of