20-3476 Martinez Roman v. Garland In the United States Court of Appeals For the Second Circuit ______________ August Term, 2021 (Argued: January 14, 2022 Decided: September 15, 2022) Docket No. 20-3476 ______________ MARCO ANTONIO MARTINEZ ROMAN, Petitioner, –v.– MERRICK B. GARLAND, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ______________ B e f o r e: POOLER, CHIN, and CARNEY, Circuit Judges. ______________ Petitioner Marco Antonio Martinez Roman, a native and citizen of Mexico, seeks review of a Board of Immigration Appeals decision affirming an Immigration Judge’s denial of Martinez’s application for cancellation of removal. In re Marco Antonio Martinez Roman, No. A201-347-082 (B.I.A. Sept. 30, 2020), aff’g No. A201-347-082 (Immig. Ct. N.Y. City Apr. 13, 2020). Martinez’s cancellation application rested on his assertion that his removal would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to his three young, U.S.-citizen children, whose mother, Martinez testified, was unable to care for them. Martinez sought a brief continuance of his merits hearing to enable him to present live testimony from an expert and others with first-hand knowledge regarding his children’s health, the family’s circumstances, and the nature and severity of the hardship that his removal would cause. The IJ denied a continuance and then found Martinez ineligible for cancellation on the ground that he failed to establish the necessary hardship. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed. On review, we conclude that the agency abused its discretion in denying Martinez the requested continuance because the denial prevented him from presenting relevant and material testimony in support of his application and there was no finding that adjournment would be unreasonable, onerous, or prejudicial. We therefore grant his petition and remand the case for further proceedings. PETITION GRANTED. ______________ ZOE LEVINE (Ryan Brewer, on the brief), for The Bronx Defenders, Bronx, NY, for Petitioner. SHEREASE PRATT, Senior Litigation Counsel, (Brian M. Boynton, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division; Jonathan Robbins, Senior Litigation Counsel, on the brief), United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for Respondent. John Harland Giammatteo, Lutheran Social Services of New York Immigration Legal Program, New York, NY, for Amici Curiae Former Immigration Judges and Members of the Board of Immigration Appeals. ______________ CARNEY, Circuit Judge: Petitioner Marco Antonio Martinez Roman (“Martinez”), a native and citizen of Mexico, seeks review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) decision affirming the decision of an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denying Martinez’s application for cancellation of removal. In re Marco Antonio Martinez Roman, No. A201-347-082 (B.I.A. Sept. 30, 2020), aff’g No. A201-347-082 (Immig. Ct. N.Y. City Apr. 13, 2020). Martinez’s application 2 rested on his assertion that removing him from the United States would cause “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to his three young, U.S.-citizen children, whose mother, Martinez testified, was unable to care for them. 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1)(D). Martinez sought a brief continuance of the merits proceeding to enable him to present live testimony from an expert and three others regarding his children’s health, the family’s circumstances, and the nature and severity of …
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