Summary
upholding a twenty-month sentence, a fourteen-month variance from a zero to six month guideline range, for unlawful reentry into the United States based on the defendant's three previous deportations
Summary of this case from United States v. Bermudez-RuizOpinion
No. 09-10757 Non-Argument Calendar.
July 14, 2009.
Maria Guzman, Tampa, FL, for Defendant-Appellant.
Yvette Rhodes, David Paul Rhodes, United States Attorney's Office, Tampa, FL, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. D.C. Docket No. 08-00478-CR-T-23-TGW.
Before BLACK, BARKETT and PRYOR, Circuit Judges.
Jose Cortes-Pacheco appeals his sentence to 20 months of imprisonment following his plea of guilty to reentering the United States illegally after three previous deportations. Cortes-Pacheco argues that his sentence is unreasonable. We affirm.
The district court did not abuse its discretion by imposing a sentence above the guideline range. The district court correctly calculated the advisory guideline range of zero to six months of imprisonment and found that a sentence within that range would be "ineffective" based on Cortes-Pacheco's "repeated and apparently inexcusable repetitive reentries into this country[.]" The district court considered the sentencing factors and found that a variance above the guideline range was necessary to address Cortes-Pacheco's recidivism and deter him and "those similarly situated that this sort of repetitious and reckless behavior and defiance of established law [was] unacceptable." The statutory maximum sentence of imprisonment for illegal reentry is two years. 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a). Cortes-Pacheco's sentence of 20 months of imprisonment is reasonable.
Cortes-Pacheco's sentence is AFFIRMED.