United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 20-2529 ___________________________ Artemio Garcia-Pascual lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner v. Merrick B. Garland, Attorney General of United States lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent ____________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________ Submitted: June 23, 2022 Filed: March 14, 2023 ____________ Before SMITH, Chief Judge, ARNOLD and STRAS, Circuit Judges. ____________ SMITH, Chief Judge. Artemio Garcia-Pascual, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirming the denial of Garcia-Pascual’s application for cancellation of removal. For the following reasons, we dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction. I. Background Garcia-Pascual entered the United States without inspection near El Paso, Texas, on February 20, 2005. On March 10, 2015, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) served Garcia-Pascual with a Notice to Appear (NTA), charging him with removability under Section 212(a)(6)(A)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). On November 3, 2016, Garcia-Pascual admitted the allegations in the NTA, conceded removability, and designated Mexico as the country of removal. On January 27, 2017, he filed an application for cancellation of removal under Section 240A(b)(1) of the INA based on the hardship that his United States citizen son, Saul, would face. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1). In the application, he indicated that he was not married and that Saul would not accompany him to Mexico if he were ordered removed. On March 22, 2018, Garcia-Pascual submitted an addendum to his application for cancellation of removal. The addendum provided that Garcia-Pascual had married his longterm partner, Silva Vazquez-Cayetano (Vazquez), a native and citizen of Mexico, on March 20, 2018. Vazquez had an 11-year-old son, Bryan. The addendum claimed that both Garcia-Pascual’s stepson Bryan and son Saul were qualifying relatives. Garcia-Pascual also submitted the following: (1) a copy of Saul’s and Bryan’s birth certificates; (2) evidence that Saul and Bryan had no educational or medical problems; (3) a letter from Garcia-Pascual’s wife indicating that Bryan considers Garcia-Pascual his father, that the family is happy, and that the children are good students; (4) a letter from Bryan demonstrating that Garcia-Pascual has a close and loving relationship with his children and provides for them financially; and (5) letters from the children’s school indicating that Bryan was excelling in school but did not read or write in Spanish, that the children had excellent attendance, and that Vazquez was involved with the school. -2- On April 25, 2018, Garcia-Pascual appeared before an immigration judge (IJ) and testified in support of his application for cancellation of removal. The only issue at the hearing was whether Garcia-Pascual could demonstrate the requisite hardship.1 See 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1)(D) (providing that the alien must “establish[] that removal would result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to the alien’s spouse, parent, or child, who is a citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence”). Garcia-Pascual testified that although he had just married Vazquez, they had been together for …
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