Case Name: Cruz MARTINEZ-CASTILLO, Petitioner, v. Eric H. HOLDER, Attorney General, Respondent
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 2011-06-23
Citations: 439 F. App'x 646
Docket Number: No. 10-71028
Parties: Cruz MARTINEZ-CASTILLO, Petitioner, v. Eric H. HOLDER, Attorney General, Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: West's Federal Appendix
Volume: 439
Pages: 646–647

Head Matter:
Cruz MARTINEZ-CASTILLO, Petitioner, v. Eric H. HOLDER, Attorney General, Respondent.
No. 10-71028.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Argued and Submitted June 6, 2011.
Filed June 23, 2011.
Lawrence Fasten, Jason Michael Porter Lewis and Roca LLP, Phoenix, AZ, for Petitioner.
Cruz Martinez-Castillo, Eloy, AZ, pro se.
Oil, Corey Leigh Farrell, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, Chief Counsel Ice, Office of the Chief Counsel Department of Homeland Security, San Francisco, CA, for Respondent.
Before: W. FLETCHER and RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges, and GONZALEZ, Chief District Judge.
The Honorable Irma E. Gonzalez, Chief District Judge for the United States District Court, District of Southern California, sitting by designation.

Opinion:
MEMORANDUM
Cruz Martinez-Castillo, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals' ("BIA") order dismissing his appeal from an immigration judge's ("IJ") decision denying his application for cancellation of removal. We have jurisdiction over the due process claim raised in the petition for review. Ramirez-Alejandre v, Ashcroft, 319 F.3d 365, 377 (9th Cir.2003) (en banc); Torres-Aguilar v. INS, 246 F.3d 1267, 1270-71 (9th Cir.2001). We review those claims de novo. Lopez-Umanzor v. Gonzales, 405 F.3d 1049, 1053 (9th Cir.2005). We deny the petition for review.
Due process "requires that aliens threatened with deportation are provided with the right to a full and fair hearing." Reyes-Melendez v. INS, 342 F.3d 1001, 1006 (9th Cir.2003) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). "A neutral judge is one of the most basic due process protections." Castro-Cortez v. INS, 239 F.3d 1037, 1049 (9th Cir.2001).
Martinez-Castillo's due process claim fails because the IJ did not demonstrate bias. Counsel for each party presented evidence, without objection, related to Martinez-Castillo's vacated rape conviction. Yet the IJ explicitly refrained from relying on such evidence in reaching his decision, relying instead on Martinez-Castillo's 2004 methamphetamine conviction and his long-standing history of alcohol abuse and related convictions. The IJ's comments regarding the the merits of Martinez-Castillo's pending appeal of the 2004 methamphetamine conviction and the contents of a pre-sentence report may have been speculative, but the comments do not demonstrate bias or otherwise demonstrate the proceedings were "so fundamentally unfair that [Martinez-Castillo] was prevented from reasonably presenting his case." Colmenar v. INS, 210 F.3d 967, 971 (9th Cir.2000) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Accordingly, we deny Martinez-Castillo's petition for review.
PETITION DENIED.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.