Garcia-Rodriguez

MEMORANDUM **

Jose de Jesus Garcia-Rodriguez appeals from the sentence imposed following his guilty plea conviction for being an alien found in the United States subsequent to deportation, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 . We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . Reviewing de novo, see United States v. Smith, 282 F.3d 758, 771 (9th Cir.2002), we affirm.

Garcia-Rodriguez contends that under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 , 120 S.Ct. 2348 , 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), the enhancement of his sentence pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (b) was unconstitutional because he did not admit the prior conviction, nor was the prior conviction proven to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. This argument is foreclosed by the text of Apprendi itself, which expressly carves out an exception for the fact of a prior conviction, see 530 U.S. at 490 , 120 S.Ct. 2348 , and by the law of this circuit. See United States v. Pacheco-Zepeda, 234 F.3d 411, 415 (9th Cir.2000); see also United States v. Velasquez-Reyes, 427 F.3d 1227, 1229 (9th Cir.2005) (stating that the Pacheco-Zepeda holding was reaffirmed following the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 , 125 S.Ct. 738 ,…