United States Court of Appeals

for the Fifth Circuit

No. 22-10406

Summary Calendar

United States of America, 

Plaintiff—Appellee,

versus

Miguel Munoz-Huerta, 

Defendant—Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court 

for the Northern District of Texas

USDC No. 4:15-CR-30

Before Wiener, Elrod, and Engelhardt, Circuit Judges.

Per Curiam:*

Following a plea of guilty, the district court sentenced defendantappellant Miguel Munoz-Huerta to 235 months confinement and four years 

of supervised release. Munoz-Huerta moved to reduce his sentence under 

18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) – the compassionate release statute. Concluding

that § 3582(c)(1)(A) was not the proper procedural mechanism for the relief 

* This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

December 9, 2022

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

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No. 22-10406

2

sought, the district court construed the motion as one brought under 28 

U.S.C. § 2255 and afforded Munoz-Huerta the opportunity to “either (1) 

withdraw the document that the Court recharacterized as a Section 2255 

motion or (2) file an amended motion on the Court’s Section 2255 form that 

included all grounds for relief he believed were available to him.” MunozHuerta withdrew the motion. He then filed another motion to challenge his 

sentence, again under § 3582(c)(1)(A). The district court dismissed the 

motion without prejudice and, for the second time, advised Munoz-Huerta 

that he could properly challenge the validity of his sentence under § 2255. 

Munoz-Huerta appeals that dismissal.

In his appellate briefing, Munoz-Huerta expressly states that he is not 

moving the Court to modify his sentence under § 2255, but under § 

3582(c)(1)(A). He contends that § 3582(c)(1)(A) is a proper vehicle for 

sentence reduction in light of the First Step Act of 2018, which amended § 

3582. In United States v. Shkambi, we explained:

Before the FSA [i.e., the First Step Act] amendment, the 

relevant provision of § 3582 read: “[T]he court, upon motion 

of the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, may reduce [a 

prisoner’s] term of imprisonment ....” 18 U.S.C. 

§ 3582(c)(1)(A) (2012). The FSA amended that text to read:

[T]he court, upon motion of the Director of the Bureau of 

Prisons, or upon motion of the defendant after the defendant has 

fully exhausted all administrative rights to appeal a failure of the 

Bureau of Prisons to bring a motion on the defendant’s behalf or the 

lapse of 30 days from the receipt of such a request by the warden of 

the defendant’s facility, whichever is earlier, may reduce [a 

prisoner’s] term of imprisonment ....

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18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) (2018) (italics indicating 

amendment).

993 F.3d 388, 391-92 (5th Cir. 2021). Accordingly, we observed that the First 

Step Act’s amendment allowed for a defendant to move the court to reduce 

his or her term of imprisonment under § 3582(c)(1)(A). Id. at 392.

That is what Munoz-Huerta seeks to do here. And he should have the 

opportunity to have the merits of his § 3582(c)(1)(A) motion heard by the 

district court and the relevant compassionate-release standards applied. 

Therefore, we REVERSE and REMAND for proceedings consistent with 

this opinion.

Case: 22-10406 Document: 00516573622 Page: 3 Date Filed: 12/09/2022