NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ___________ No. 19-3126 ___________ PAUL WILLIAMS, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA On Petition for Review of a Final Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (No. A047-366-837) Argued November 17, 2020 Before: AMBRO, BIBAS and ROTH, Circuit Judges (Opinion filed: March 3, 2021) Sandra L. Greene, Esq. (Argued) Greene Fitzgerald Advocates and Consultants 2575 Eastern Boulevard Suite 208 York, PA 17402 Counsel for Petitioner William P. Barr, Esq. Joann L. Watson, Esq. (Argued) Office of Immigration Litigation United States Department of Justice Office of Immigration Litigation P.O. Box 878 Ben Franklin Station Washington, DC 20044 Counsel for Respondent ___________ OPINION * ___________ AMBRO, Circuit Judge, Petitioner Paul Williams seeks our review of a final order of removal by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). For the reasons stated below, we deny his petition for review. I. Williams was born in Trinidad and came to the United States in 2000, when he was seventeen years old. In 2002, Williams attended college in upstate New York and began selling drugs there. He ultimately dropped out of college and began selling drugs for a living. Williams intermittently sold drugs between other jobs for the next decade. He testified he fears for his life in part because he failed to repay several of his U.S.-based suppliers who gave him drugs on credit during this time. Williams further testified that his life would be in even more danger in Trinidad because the suppliers had gang-related ties * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. 2 with two individuals who were previously deported there from the United States and had already threatened him and his family several times. Williams was arrested on drug charges in 2013 and in 2016 he pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin under 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(B), and 846. He was sentenced to sixty months’ imprisonment, the mandatory minimum for his offenses. In 2018, the Government filed a Notice to Appear charging Williams as removable for committing three kinds of crimes: (1) illicit trafficking in a controlled substance (under INA §§ 237(a)(2)(A)(iii) and 101(a)(43)(B)); (2) attempt or conspiracy to commit an illicit substance trafficking offense (under INA §§ 237(a)(2)(A)(iii) and 101(a)(43)(U)); and (3) offenses relating to controlled substances except minor marijuana possession (under INA § 237(a)(2)(B)(i)). On July 26, 2018, Williams appeared at his first hearing without an attorney, and he requested a continuance so he could obtain one. The IJ granted his request and reset the case for August 23. On that date, Williams again appeared without counsel. He told the IJ that he had retained counsel and requested a second continuance to “get all of this straightened out.” A.R. 85, 87. This time, however, the IJ denied Williams’s request and proceeded to the evidentiary part of the hearing. In a particularly concerning moment, …
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