Diaz-Valdez

MEMORANDUM **

Humberto Diaz-Valdez appeals the sentence imposed following his guilty plea to being found in the United States after deportation, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 . We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

Diaz-Valdez contends that the district court erred in sentencing him pursuant to *548 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (b)(2) to more than the two-year maximum set forth in § 1326(a) on the basis of the finding that he had a prior felony conviction that preceded his deportation when those facts were not charged in the indictment, admitted, or proved to a jury. He argues that the doctrine of constitutional avoidance requires that Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224 , 118 S.Ct. 1219 , 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998), be limited to the holding that the maximum penalty may be increased on the basis of a judicial finding regarding the fact of a prior conviction, and not be extended to allow judicial findings regarding facts about a prior conviction. This contention is foreclosed. See United States v. Castillo-Rivera, 244 F.3d 1020, 1025 (9th Cir.2001).

Diaz-Valdez also contends that intervening Supreme Court decisions have overruled Almendarez-Torres and this…