United States v. Claudio Juarez-Mendez

MEMORANDUM

In July 2008, Defendant pled guilty to one count of unlawful reentry by a removed alien, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1826 (a)-(b). Because Defendant had previously been convicted of committing lewd acts on a child, a felony under Cal.Penal Code § 288(a), the district court applied a 16-level enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii), yielding a Guidelines range of 46 to 57 months’ imprisonment; the district court ultimately sentenced Defendant to a 51-month prison term. Defendant now challenges the reasonableness of his sentence.

First, we reject several of Defendant’s arguments as foreclosed, namely: (1) that his § 288(a) conviction did not constitute a crime of violence for purposes of U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2’s 16-level enhancement, see United States v. Medina-Villa, 567 F.3d 507, 511-12 (9th Cir.2009); and (2) that the prior conviction exception established in Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224 , 118 S.Ct. 1219 , 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998), should be limited to its facts, has been implicitly overruled, and renders unconstitutional 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (b). See United States v. Garcia-Cardenas, 555 F.3d 1049, 1051 (9th Cir.2009) (per curiam) (listing…