The Seventh Circuit has determined that the "mailbox rule" should apply to a detained immigrant who handed his petition for review to an official at the detention facility before the 30 day appeal deadline had lapsed, even if the petition was not received in the clerk's office until after the 30 day deadline. The panel also determined that the Immigration Judge had erred by failing to advise the petitioner of the availability of pre-conclusion voluntary departure, but denied his petition for review because he had failed to raise this argument before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Judge Posner wrote a scathing dissent, deeming the Immigration Court system to be the most incompetent federal agency.
The full text of Chavarria-Reyes v. Lynch can be found here: