United States v. Maria Guadalupe Lopez-Garcia

Maria Lopez-Garcia appeals her sentence for transporting illegal aliens in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324 (a)(l)(A)(ii). We must decide whether the district court erred when it (1) imposed sentencing enhancements under United States Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.”) section 3C1.2 in addition to U.S.S.G. section 2L1.1(b)(5), and (2) denied Lopez-Garcia’s request for a downward departure for duress. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We find that the district court applied the wrong standard in determining that U.S.S.G. section 3C1.2 could be applied in addition to U.S.S.G. section 2L1.1(b)(5), because it looked to whether the basis for both enhancements was the same conduct rather than focusing on whether the sole basis for the section 2Ll.l(b)(5) enhancement was “conduct related to fleeing from a law enforcement officer.” Thus, we vacate the sentence and remand for resen-tencing. However, we conclude that the district court did not err in denying Lopez-Garcia a downward departure for imperfect duress.

I.

BACKGROUND

Maria Lopez-Garcia, a native of Mexico living in the United States, returned to Mexico for a short visit. Because she did not have documents allowing her…