NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ___________ No. 19-3934 LUIS ALFREDO RIVERA-PADILLA Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (A205-986-698) Immigration Judge: Steven Morley Submitted under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) on July 2, 2020 Before: GREENAWAY, JR., SHWARTZ, and RENDELL, Circuit Judges (Opinion Filed: August 3, 2020) _________ OPINION * _________ RENDELL, Circuit Judge: * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. Petitioner Luis Rivera-Padilla, a native and citizen of Ecuador, seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) Order affirming the Immigration Judge’s (IJ) denial of his application for cancellation of removal. For the following reasons, we will deny the petition. I. BACKGROUND Rivera-Padilla entered the United States unlawfully around 1995 and the Department of Homeland Security initiated removal proceedings against him in 2013. Rivera-Padilla conceded removability and filed an application for cancellation of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b). During the hearing before the IJ, Rivera-Padilla testified that his removal to Ecuador would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to his children. Rivera-Padilla testified that he has two children who live in the United States and one child who lives in Costa Rica. All three children are United States citizens. Rivera- Padilla testified that he is very close with his eldest child, Taynaris, age 18, who resides in Philadelphia with her mother. He testified that he takes her to school multiple days per week, sees her every weekend, and provides her financial support, amounting to about $150 to $180 per month. His son, Luniel Rivera, age 6, resides in Worcester, Massachusetts with his mother. Rivera-Padilla testified that he visits Luniel once or twice per month and provides him financial support, amounting to about $200 per month. Luniel’s mother corroborated this information in a letter submitted to the IJ. Rivera- Padilla testified that his third child, Luis Samuel Rivera, age 12, resides in Costa Rica 2 with his mother. He testified that he buys Luis a plane ticket to visit him in Pennsylvania once per year. The IJ noted that Rivera-Padilla provided no written documentation to support his testimony that he provides financial support to his children and provided no corroborating evidence that his children would suffer exceptional and extremely unusual hardship if he were removed to Ecuador. 1 Despite this lack of corroborating evidence, the IJ determined that Rivera-Padilla was a “credible witness” and accepted his testimony. App. 17. For Taynaris, the IJ credited Rivera-Padilla’s testimony that he was emotionally attached to Taynaris and that he provided her financial support. But even accepting Rivera-Padilla’s testimony as true, the IJ did “not fin[d] the combination of $150 to $180 per month, plus the emotional connection, to be sufficient to establish exceptional and extremely unusual hardship.” App. 18. For Luniel, the IJ accepted that Rivera-Padilla sends Luniel’s mother $200 per month, but was unable to ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals