The Tenth Circuit has ruled that the regulatory departure bar does not prevent the Immigration Judge from exercising his sua sponte authority to reopen proceedings. The departure bar applies only to a motion to reopen filed by one of the parties, which differs from an Immigration Judge’s authority to sua sponte reopen proceedings. ‘Thus, the IJ may move sua sponte to reopen removal proceedings even when either or both the ninety-day time bar or the post-departure bar would defeat an alien’s ‘motion to reopen’.”
The full text of Reyes-Vargas v. Barr can be found here: