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UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Bernardo DELEON-TORRES, Defendant-Appellant

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit2012-05-18No. No. 11-50302
473 F. App'x 599

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Opinion

majority opinion

MEMORANDUM

Bernardo Deleon-Torres appeals from the 72-month sentence imposed following his bench-trial conviction for being a deported alien found in the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

Deleon-Torres contends that the district court erred in calculating the applicable Guidelines range in that it improperly denied a downward departure for cultural assimilation. This argument fails because “it is the pre-departure Guidelines sentencing range that the district court must correctly calculate.” United States v. Evans-Martinez, 611 F.3d 635, 643 (9th Cir. 2010). In any event, in light of Deleon-Torres’s criminal history, the court did not err in denying the departure. See U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 cmt. n. 8.

Deleon-Torres also contends that his sentence is substantively unreasonable in light of his cultural assimilation. The below-Guidelines sentence is substantively reasonable in light of the totality of the circumstances and the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) sentencing factors. See Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007).

Finally, Deleon-Torres concedes that his contentions that Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 118 S.Ct. 1219, 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998), should be limited to its facts, that Almendarez-Torres has been overruled; and that 8 U.S.C. § 1326(b) is unconstitutional, are foreclosed by Ninth Circuit precedent. See United States v. Salazar-Lopez, 506 F.3d 748, 751 n. 3 (9th Cir.2007).

AFFIRMED.

This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.