Marquez-Rodriguez

MEMORANDUM **

Ramon Marquez-Rodriguez appeals his conviction pursuant to guilty plea and his 62-month sentence for unlawful reentry by a deported, removed and/or excluded alien in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 . We affirm.

Marquez-Rodriguez contends that his sentence in excess of two years is illegal and violates due process under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 , 120 S.Ct. 2348 , 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), because at the plea hearing Marquez-Rodriguez admitted “denial of admission,” but not removal which, he says, is the exclusive condition precedent for enhanced punishment under the 1996 version of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (b)(2). We reject Marquez-Rodriguez’s contention that United States v. Lopez-Gonzalez, 183 F.3d 933, 934 (9th Cir. 1999) (concluding that any distinction between deportation and removal is legally insignificant for purposes of the 1996 version of § 1326), is not controlling. See also United States v. Pacheco-Zepeda, 234 F.3d 411 (9th Cir.2000) (holding that Apprendi preserved the holding of Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224 , 118 S.Ct. 1219 , 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998), and rejecting contention that a § 1326(b)(2) enhancement requires proof beyond a…