Joel Ruelas Manzo v. ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA On

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
No. 25-1411
JOEL RUELAS MANZO,
Petitioner
v.
ATTORNEY GENERAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
_____________________________
On Petition for Review of the Board of Immigration Appeals
Immigration Judge: Joseph C. Scott, No. A216-289-148
Before: C HAGARES , Chief Judge, F REEMAN AND MASCOTT , Circuit Judges
Submitted pursuant to Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) on December 2, 2025
Filed: August 21, 2026
_____________________________
NONPRECEDENTIAL O PINION*
M ASCOTT , Circuit Judge. Joel Ruelas Manzo, a Mexican citizen, entered the United
States unlawfully without inspection in 1998. He departed and then reentered the country three
times between 1998 and 2004. Fourteen years later, in 2018, the Department of Homeland
Security served Manzo with a Notice to Appear and charged him as removable from the United
States. See 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i).
Manzo conceded his unlawful entry and removability but applied for cancellation of
removal on the ground that his removal would cause “exceptional and extremely unusual
hardship” for his United States citizen children. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1)(D). His wife also
lacked lawful status in the United States and earned less money than he. The couple has three
children who are U.S. citizens. At the time two were in high school and one was four years old.
According to Manzo, they are all in good health. They speak Spanish but do not want to live in

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Mexico. Manzo’s wife has two siblings in the United States who have resident status. And
Manzo has at least five siblings in the United States although they lack lawful status. In October
2020, an immigration judge (IJ) denied Manzo’s request for cancellation, finding that Manzo had
not shown the children would suffer exceptional and extremely unusual hardship if he were
removed. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed.
We review for substantial evidence an immigration judge’s application of the
exceptional-and-extremely-unusual hardship threshold. See Wilkinson v. Att’y Gen., 131 F.4th
134, 142 (3d Cir. 2025) (“We therefore hold that the substantial-evidence standard governs
review of a hardship determination in a cancellation-of-removal proceeding.”). Under
“substantial evidence” review, the IJ’s determination is upheld “unless any reasonable
adjudicator would be compelled to conclude to the contrary.” See 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(4)(B);
Wilkinson, 131 F.4th at 142 (quotation omitted).
Here, it is not clear we even reach application of that deferential review standard. Before
this Court, Manzo does not press the challenge to the IJ’s fact-and-law conclusions evaluating
his circumstances under the hardship standard. Therefore, under this Court’s precedent, he has
forfeited that argument. M.S. by and through Hall v. Susquehanna Twp. Sch. Dist., 969 F.3d
120, 124 n.2 (3d Cir. 2020).
In any event, substantial evidence supports the determinations below that his removal
does not constitute statutory hardship. That standard requires evaluation of “whether any
hardship to a U.S.-citizen or permanent-resident family member is substantially different from,
or beyond, that which would normally be expected from the deportation of a close family
member.” Wilkinson v. Garland, 601 U.S. 209, 222 (2024). Relief is limited “to truly

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exceptional situations.” Wilkinson, 131 F.4th at 142 (quotation omitted). The standard’s
statutory history underscores its height. In 1996, Congress and the President amplified the
requirement from the more unidimensional “extreme hardship” to “exceptional and extremely
unusual hardship.” See id. at 143.
Relevant circumstances impacting the hardship analysis may include serious health issues
or compelling special educational needs of qualifying relatives, whereas a lower standard of
living does not. See id. The IJ found that the children have no significant behavioral or health
concerns and would not suffer significant educational setbacks. Their mother’s employment
could provide for their continued support in the United States, according to the IJ. And Manzo
presented no evidence substantiating his fear that the mother herself would be removed.
Therefore, the agency reasonably concluded that the children could continue to receive care from
the mother whether they remain in the United States or move as a family unit with the father.
Evidence also indicated that the mother and children have multiple family members present in
the United States as lawful permanent residents, including their maternal grandmother and
maternal siblings.
Manzo contends in this Court, nonetheless, that the BIA applied the wrong legal standard
by incorporating his unlawfully present wife’s employment status into its hardship analysis. The
government contends that Manzo did not adequately raise this argument before the BIA and that
the argument therefore was not exhausted. See 8 U.S.C. § 1252(d)(1) (requiring exhaustion of
administrative remedies). See also Santos-Zacaria v. Garland, 598 U.S. 411, 419, 424 (2023)
(concluding that the section 1252 exhaustion requirement is a mandatory claims-processing
requirement albeit a nonjurisdictional rule); Aguilar v. Att’y General, 107 F.4th 164, 169 (3d Cir.

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2024) (requiring enforcement of the exhaustion requirement where the government raises it).
Whether or not Manzo exhausted the particular argument that the BIA may not incorporate into
its hardship analysis the employment status of a non-legally authorized relative, Manzo’s legal
argument is flawed. The case on which he relies was a nonpublished opinion and is inapposite.
See Angel-Hernandez v. Att’y Gen., 762 F. App’x 74 (3d Cir. 2019) (unpub.). In Angel-
Hernandez, the panel admonished agency adjudicators for speculating that a remaining,
unlawfully present spouse could potentially find work in the “underground economy.” See id. at
77. But the case was not precedential, the remaining spouse there did not already have
employment, unlike Manzo’s wife, and the statement was dictum with no bearing on the
outcome of the case, which affirmed denial of cancellation of removal. See id. at 76¬77.
Ultimately, even without consideration of his wife’s employment, Manzo has not identified
evidence compelling a conclusion that his children would suffer exceptional and extremely
unusual hardship due to his removal.
We will deny the petition for review.

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