Sentencing — Illegal reentry

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Sentencing — Illegal reentry

The 16-level enhancement if the defendant served more than 13 months for a drug offense prior to deportation is not limited to the initial term of confinement.

“Nothing in the plain text of the guideline supports Gonzalez-Lara’s argument that the sixteen-level enhancement should only apply when a defendant’s original pre-revocation sentence results in a term of imprisonment exceeding thirteen months. The guideline states that the enhancement applies if the ‘defendant previously was deported . . . after’ a conviction—precisely the situation here. Gonzalez-Lara’s probation was revoked on August 3, 1999, and he was resentenced to three years’ imprisonment ten months before his May 2000 deportation to Mexico. Moreover, Application Note 1(B)(vii) to § 2L1.2 further confirms that a sentence imposed pursuant to probationary revocation still qualifies for the sentence enhancement: ‘The length of the sentence imposed includes any term of imprisonment given upon revocation of probation, parole, or supervised release.’ Though Gonzalez-Lara initially received a sentence below the guideline’s thirteen-month threshold, the later revocation of his probation prior to his deportation triggered the sixteen-level enhancement.

Affirmed.

11-3892 U.S. v. Gonzalez-Lara

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Dow, J., Williams, J.