16‐3145
Matthews v. Barr


                          UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                              FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

                                     August Term, 2017

                     (Argued: May 9, 2018              Decided: June 18, 2019)

                           Docket No. 16‐3145
________________________________________________________________________

                                GERARD PATRICK MATTHEWS,

                                                             Petitioner,

                                              ‐ v. ‐

                      WILLIAM P. BARR, United States Attorney General,

                                            Respondent.
________________________________________________________________________

Before:
                   HALL and CARNEY, Circuit Judges, KOELTL, District Judge.1

       Petitioner seeks review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals,
affirming a decision of an Immigration Judge that found Petitioner removable and
denied Petitioner’s applications for cancellation of removal and adjustment of
status. The agency determined that Petitioner’s New York convictions for
endangering the welfare of a child were crimes of child abuse, child neglect, or
child abandonment under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and denied relief
from removal as a matter of discretion. Because we have previously upheld the
determination of the Board of Immigration Appeals that child endangerment
offenses fall within the Immigration and Nationality Act’s crime of child abuse
provision, and we agree that New York law—which criminalizes conduct that

1Judge John G. Koeltl, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York,
sitting by designation.
poses a likelihood of physical, mental, or moral harm to a child—falls within the
BIA’s definition, we DENY the petition.

            Petition for review DENIED.

            Judge Carney dissents in a separate opinion.



                               DAVID J. ZIMMER, Goodwin Procter LLP, Boston,
                               MA (William M. Jay, Goodwin Procter LLP,
                               Washington, D.C.; Seymour W. James, Jr.,
                               Attorney‐in‐Chief, Hasan Shafiqullah, Attorney‐in
                               Charge, Ward J. Oliver, Supervising Attorney,
                               Immigration Law Unit, The Legal Aid Society,
                               New York, NY, on the brief), for Petitioner.

                               SONG PARK, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of
                               Immigration Litigation, Civil Division (Chad A.
                               Readler, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Cindy
                               S. Ferrier, Assistant Director, on the brief), United
                               States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for
                               Respondent.

                               ANDREW WACHTENHEIM, Immigrant Defense
                               Project, New York, NY, for Amici Curiae Brooklyn
                               Defender Services, Queens Law Associates,
                               Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, The
                               Bronx Defenders, Essex County Public Defender’s
                               Office, Monroe County Public Defender’s Office,
                               Immigrant Defense Project.




                                        2
HALL, CIRCUIT JUDGE:

      Petitioner Gerard Patrick Matthews seeks review of an August 2016 decision

of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), affirming an April 2016 decision of

an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) that ordered Matthews removed to Ireland on the

ground that his convictions for endangering the welfare of a child under New York

Penal Law (“NYPL”) § 260.10(1) made him removable under Immigration and

Nationality Act (“INA”) § 237(a)(2)(E)(i