Jimenez

FACTS

On October 17, 2000, pursuant to his guilty pleas of Sep- tember 11, 2000, Jimenez was convicted of two counts of Unlawful Use of a Communication Facility, 21 U.S.C. § 843(b) (“§ 843(b)”), in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. He was sentenced to two forty-eight month terms to run consecutively. Thereafter, Jimenez was deported on November 8, 2005.

On about May 4, 2006, Jimenez was found residing in the United States unlawfully. He eventually pleaded guilty with- out a plea agreement to one count of Unlawful Reentry of a Deported Alien, 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (“§ 1326”), on May 15, 2007. On July 27, 2007, the district court sentenced Jimenez to forty-six months of imprisonment. In calculating the total offense level, the court applied — over Jimenez’s objection — a sixteen-level enhancement because of Jimenez’s two prior § 843(b) felony convictions, which the district judge found to be “drug trafficking offenses” for which the Guide- lines provide such an enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A)(i).

Jimenez now appeals his sentence arguing that his § 843(b) convictions are not “drug trafficking convictions” under the Guidelines but rather mere…