NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit Chicago, Illinois 60604 Submitted May 30, 2019* Decided May 31, 2019 Before DIANE P. WOOD, Chief Judge FRANK H. EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge No. 18-3401 OMAR HUSSEIN KHALIL, Petition for Review of an Order of the Petitioner, Board of Immigration Appeals. v. No. A097-999-893 WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ORDER Omar Hussein Khalil, a citizen of Jordan, petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals upholding the denial of a continuance and ordering him removed from the country. Khalil argues that he was entitled to a continuance of his removal proceedings to seek counsel and pursue an adjustment of status based on his * We have agreed to decide this case without oral argument because the briefs and record adequately present the facts and legal arguments, and oral argument would not significantly aid the court. FED. R. APP. P. 34(a)(2)(C). No. 18-3401 Page 2 marriage to a United States citizen. The Board’s decision is sound, so we deny the petition. Khalil entered the United States on a non-immigrant visa in 1991 and seven years later married an Israeli woman, who became a U.S. citizen in 2002. In 2007 or 2008, the couple left for Jordan to care for Khalil’s father. They returned to the United States in 2013, Khalil re-entering illegally. Three months later, he was arrested for retail theft, 720 ILCS 5/16-25(a)(1), and he was sentenced to 30 days’ probation. The Department of Homeland Security soon charged him with removability as an alien present in the United States without being admitted or paroled. See 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). Several months later, Khalil’s wife filed an I-130 petition for an alien relative on his behalf with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS approved the petition in May 2014. (Khalil testified, however, that he did not learn of this approval until nearly four years later, in April 2018.) These proceedings have been unusually protracted. At his first immigration hearing in November 2014, an Immigration Judge granted Khalil a 16-month continuance to secure counsel. His next hearing, scheduled for March 2016, was later rescheduled for November 2019. In the meantime, however, in August 2017, the Department took Khalil into custody after he had been convicted of criminal trespass to property, 720 ILCS 5/21-3, and of resisting a peace officer, 720 ILCS 5/31-1(a), and because he had been arrested again for retail theft, 720 ILCS 5/16-25(a)(1). His November 2019 hearing then was moved up to September 2017. What followed was a string of continuances that the IJ granted Khalil so that he could secure counsel. At three hearings over the next three months, the IJ granted Khalil’s requests for a continuance. And at a hearing in November, Khalil told the IJ that his attorney could attend the hearing if it was rescheduled for three days later, so ...
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