Perez

MEMORANDUM

Rene Contreras Perez, a citizen of Mexico, appeals his conviction for three counts of being found in the United States after deportation, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 . Contreras Perez has been deported from the United States seven times. He was charged in the present case with returning after deportation on three occasions. After a jury convicted Contreras Perez, he was sentenced to one hundred months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay a $300 special assessment. We affirm his conviction and sentence.

Contreras Perez contends that he was entitled to a jury instruction stating that he could not be convicted unless he knew he did not have the Attorney General’s permission to be present in the United States. As Contreras Perez concedes, his argument is foreclosed by Pena-Cabanillas v. United States, 394 F.2d 785 (9th Cir.1968), in which we held that an alien *654 need not have had the specific intent to reenter the United States illegally.

We decline to overrule Pena-Cabanillas . Contreras Perez’s assertion that Staples v. United States, 511 U.S. 600 , 114 S.Ct. 1793 , 128 L.Ed.2d 608 (1994), conflicts with our…