Source: https://www.scribd.com/document/317984309/United-States-v-Rosales-Garcia-667-F-3d-1348-10th-Cir-2012
Timestamp: 2017-04-26 18:51:51
Document Index: 528934850

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1326', '§ 2', '§ 1326', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 1326', '§ 2', '§\n2', '§ 3231', '§ 1291', '§ 3742', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 1326', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§\n2', '§\n2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§\n2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§\n2', '§\n2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 1326', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§\n2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§\n994', '§ 2', '§\n2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2']

United States v. Rosales-Garcia, 667 F.3d 1348, 10th Cir. (2012) | Sentence (Law)
ScribdBrowseInterestsPolitics & Current AffairsCareer & MoneyPersonal GrowthFictionHealth & FitnessLifestyleEntertainmentBiographies & HistoryScience & TechBrowse byBooksAudiobooksNews & MagazinesSheet MusicBrowse allUploadSign inJoinUnited States v. Rosales-Garcia, 667 F.3d 1348, 10th Cir. (2012)Uploaded by Scribd Government DocsSentence (Law)ProbationFelonyDefendantIllegal Immigration To The United States0.0 (0)DownloadEmbedDescription: Filed: 2012-02-07
Citations: 667 F.3d 1348
Docket: 10-4224View MoreFiled: 2012-02-07
Docket: 10-4224Copyright: Public DomainDownload as PDF or read online from ScribdFlag for inappropriate contentFILEDUnited States Court of Appeals
RAUL ROSALES-GARCIA,
(D.C. No. 1:10-CR-00019-TS-1)
Benjamin McMurray, Assistant Federal Defender, Salt Lake City, Utah, (Steven B.
Killpack, Utah Federal Defender and Scott Keith Wilson, Assistant Federal Defender,
with him on the brief), for the Appellant.
Dave Backman, Assistant United States Attorney, Salt Lake City, Utah, (Carlie
Christensen, United States Attorney, with him on the brief), for the Appellee.
Defendant-Appellant Raul Rosales-Garcia (Rosales) pled guilty to one count of
illegal reentry in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 and was sentenced to a term of
imprisonment of 37 months. On appeal Mr. Rosales challenges his sentence, alleging that
the district court incorrectly applied the Sentencing Guidelines. We agree. We
REMAND to the district court for resentencing.
USSG § 2L1.2 is the Sentencing Guidelines provision applicable to defendants
who illegally reenter the country in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. The sentencing scheme
embodied in § 2L1.2 imposes, via enhancements to the defendant’s base offense level,
more severe punishment for defendants who have committed serious prior crimes. A
drug trafficking felony is enumerated as one such predicate offense. Depending on the
length of the “sentence imposed” for the earlier drug trafficking felony, the defendant is
subject to a 12- or 16-level enhancement on his illegal reentry sentence. If the “sentence
imposed” for the earlier drug trafficking crime exceeded 13 months, the defendant is
subject to the 16-level enhancement set out in § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A).
The sole question posed before us on appeal is whether the 16-level enhancement
in USSG § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A) applies to a defendant whose sentence for an earlier drug
trafficking felony was made longer than 13 months after the defendant was deported and
committed the base offense of illegal reentry.
The relevant facts are undisputed and uncomplicated. Mr. Rosales was convicted
of a state drug trafficking felony in 2008 and sentenced to 90 days’ state imprisonment
and 3 years of probation. Mr. Rosales was deported and then illegally reentered the
country, violating the terms of his state probation and 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Federal law
enforcement arrested Mr. Rosales shortly after he illegally reentered the country. Mr.
Rosales’s probation for the earlier state drug offense was revoked by a Utah state court as
a result of his illegal reentry. Upon revocation of probation, Mr. Rosales was sentenced
in state court to a term of imprisonment of 1 to 15 years on his prior state drug felony.
After serving his state drug sentence, Mr. Rosales was released into federal custody and
prosecuted in federal court for his illegal reentry. Mr. Rosales agreed to plead guilty to
the federal charge as part of the District of Utah’s fast-track program. Accordingly, the
United States Probation Office prepared a Presentence Report (“PSR”) before Mr.
Rosales entered his guilty plea.
The PSR recommended that Mr. Rosales’s base offense level be enhanced by 16
levels pursuant to USSG § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A). During his sentencing hearing and with the
prosecution’s permission, Mr. Rosales objected to the 16-level enhancement. The
government alleged that Mr. Rosales’s sentence upon revocation of his state probation
constituted a prior drug trafficking felony for which the sentence imposed exceeded 13
months. Mr. Rosales contended that application of the 16-level enhancement did not
comport with the Sentencing Guidelines for the sole reason that the “sentence imposed”
did not exceed 13 months at the time he committed the base offense of illegal reentry.
The district court rejected Mr. Rosales’s argument and applied the 16-level
enhancement as recommended in the PSR, resulting in an advisory Guidelines range of 37
to 46 months. The district judge ultimately sentenced Mr. Rosales to a prison term of 37
months. If the district court had applied the 12-level enhancement under §
2L1.2(b)(1)(B) instead of the 16-level enhancement, as Mr. Rosales says it should have,
the Guidelines range would have been 24 to 30 months. On appeal, Mr. Rosales
challenges the procedural reasonableness of his sentence, claiming that the district court
improperly applied the Sentencing Guidelines.
The district court properly exercised jurisdiction over this case involving a crime
against the United States pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3231. We have jurisdiction over this
appeal of the district court’s final sentencing decision pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and
18 U.S.C. § 3742(a)(2).
We review de novo a district court’s interpretation of the Sentencing Guidelines
where the appellant’s argument was properly preserved before the district court. United
States v. Ford, 613 F.3d 1263, 1268 (10th Cir. 2010).
In United States v. Ruiz-Gea, we confronted the precise issue that Mr. Rosales
raises in his appeal in analogous factual circumstances, but there only reviewed for plain
error because the defendant’s objection to the 16-level enhancement was not preserved in
the district court. United States v. Ruiz-Gea, 340 F.3d 1181, 1185 (10th Cir. 2003). In
Ruiz-Gea, we found no plain error in the district court’s application of the 16-level
enhancement, but explicitly noted the difficulty of the issue and invited future litigants to
address the question after proper preservation before the district court. Id. at 1188.
Mr. Rosales preserved this issue in the district court proceedings, so here we must
apply de novo review to the district court’s application of the Guidelines. Because our
opinion in Ruiz-Gea held that the defendant’s argument was at least “plausible” and only
resolved the case on the ground that the district court did not plainly err, in this case we
must set out anew in reviewing § 2L1.2’s application. See Ruiz-Gea, 340 F.3d at 1187.
The Guidelines provision at issue in this case, USSG § 2L1.2(b)(1), provides as
“If the defendant previously was deported . . . after (A) a conviction for a felony
that is … a drug trafficking offense for which the sentence imposed exceeded 13
months . . . , increase [the base offense level] by 16 levels. . . .”
Application Note 1(B)(vii) to § 2L1.2 defines a “sentence imposed” as including
“any term of imprisonment given upon revocation of probation . . . .” Additionally, the
commentary makes clear that the length of the defendant’s prior sentence is the maximum
term of imprisonment for his prior offense. In other words, when the defendant’s earlier
sentence is for a range of years, the term of imprisonment is the maximum end of that
range, for purposes of § 2L1.2.1 Thus, Mr. Rosales’s ultimate state court sentence of 1 to
15 years is a 15-year prison sentence for purposes of § 2L1.2.
We note that the recent 2011 Amendments to the Guidelines altered the substance
of § 2L1.2 by reducing the magnitude of the offense level increase if the defendant’s
predicate conviction does not count for criminal history points under Chapter Four.
USSG App. C, Vol. III, Amendment 754 (Nov. 1, 2011). Mr. Rosales has not argued that
this change might benefit or apply to him.
Mr. Rosales challenges the use of his 15 year sentence because it was not imposed
until after he committed the base offense in 8 U.S.C. § 1326. In other words, Mr. Rosales
asks us only to count the drug trafficking sentence that was imposed before he illegally
reentered the country.
First and foremost, we carefully focus on the consequences of the Sentencing
Commission’s use of the word “after” in its provision. According to Mr. Rosales, this
word choice means that all the elements of the § 2L1.2(b)(1) enhancements — conviction
and imposition of sentence for a prior drug trafficking felony — must occur prior to the
defendant’s earlier deportation in order for the enhancement to be implicated. Under Mr.
Rosales’s view, the § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A) 16-level enhancement plainly does not apply to him
since the 15 year sentence for his drug trafficking felony was not imposed before his
illegal reentry.
The text of § 2L1.2(b)(1) makes repeated use of the past tense (“imposed”;
“exceeded”) in referring to the predicate drug trafficking felony sentence serving as the
basis for an enhancement, implying that the previous sentence must have been imposed
before some date of reference.2 Because it is undisputed that the defendant’s prior
conviction must have occurred before deportation, we agree with Mr. Rosales that the
For its part, the dissent eloquently argues that the Commission’s verb tense
selection is not particularly helpful. Specifically, the dissent suggests it is “equally
plausible” to read the use of “imposed” and “exceeded” as referring a sentencing judge to
any sentence imposed before the date of sentencing. Dissenting op. at 3-4. While such a
reading may indeed be plausible, for the reasons elaborated in this opinion, we cannot
agree that it is “equally” as plausible as the understanding we set forth.
most logical reading of § 2L1.2 is to refer to the date of deportation in evaluating whether
the “sentence imposed” for the prior felony exceeded 13 months.
In other words, we conclude that the temporal requirement contained in the text of
§ 2L1.2 with regard to the defendant’s conviction also applies to the imposition of his
sentence for that conviction. This view is consistent with the interpretation of § 2L1.2
adopted by the Seventh Circuit in United States v. Lopez, 634 F.3d 948 (7th Cir. 2011).
Our ultimate disposition is consistent with results reached in three of our sibling circuits,
though we recognize that one circuit has held to the contrary. Compare United States v.
Bustillos-Pena, 612 F.3d 863, 869 (5th Cir. 2010) (relying on the rule of lenity and
concluding that “it is error to implement the sixteen-level enhancement” in analogous
factual circumstances), United States v. Lopez, 634 F.3d 948, 950 (7th Cir. 2011) (“We
hold that [the defendant’s] later sentence on probation revocation after his deportation and
reentry should not count under section 2L1.2(b)(1)(A)(i).”), and United States v. GuzmanBera, 216 F.3d 1019, 1021 (11th Cir. 2000) (applying an earlier version of §
2L1.2(b)(1)(A) when determining whether the defendant had committed an aggravated
felony and concluding that a post-deportation and -illegal reentry sentence lengthening
“should not have been used for enhancement purposes under U.S.S.G. §
2L1.2(b)(1)(A)”), with United States v. Compres-Paulino, 393 F.3d 116, 118 (2d Cir.
2004) (per curiam) (holding that the “defendant illegally reentered the United States after
having been convicted of a drug trafficking offense for which the sentence imposed
exceeded 13 months” in analogous factual circumstances) (internal quotations omitted).
See also United States v. Jimenez, 258 F.3d 1120, 1126-27 (9th Cir. 2001) (stating in
dictum that the presence vel non of an aggravated felony for purposes of § 2L1.2 turns on
whether the statutory elements of such a felony were met “prior to . . . deportation and
reentry”).
The government argues that the commentary to § 2L1.2 supports its interpretation
of the provision. We disagree. We defer to the Sentencing Commission’s view as
expressed in the commentary unless manifestly inconsistent with the Guidelines
themselves. United States v. Rendon-Alamo, 621 F.3d 1307, 1309 (10th Cir. 2010). Like
the Seventh Circuit in Lopez, we conclude that the commentary does not support the
government’s construction of § 2L1.2. See Lopez, 634 F.3d at 953.
We owe no particular deference to the commentary in this case because it does not,
despite the government’s contrary protestations, alter the temporal constraint inherent in §
2L1.2.3 Seeking to persuade us otherwise, the government directs us to Application Note
1(B)(vii), which defines the term “sentence imposed” as including “any term of
imprisonment given upon revocation of probation.” USSG § 2L1.2, Application Note
1(B)(vii) (emphasis added). The government urges a simple truism: “any” means “any.”
According to the government, if the Commission wished to limit the enhancement to only
The dissent contends that the “context” of § 2L1.2, i.e. the Guidelines
commentary, makes “disarmingly simple” the meaning of the guideline provision.
Dissenting op. at 2. We cannot agree. Quite telling, in our view, is the Commission’s
explanation of its written directions contained in the commentary (embodied in the
amending documents that enacted Application Note 1(B)(vii)), which makes no mention
of the temporal constraint implicated in this case. See USSG App. C, Vol. II,
Amendment 658 (Nov. 1, 2003); infra at pp. 9-10.
those defendants who had their sentence increased before they committed the base
offense of illegal reentry, they would have picked one of the myriad of words more
restrictive than “any” for use in the relevant application note. We are not persuaded.
Most importantly, the commentary simply does not address the temporal constraint
at the crux of this appeal. Invocation of the “relation back” doctrine for increased
sentences upon revocation of probation, as required by the commentary, is not
inconsistent with our understanding of the temporal constraint embodied in the text of §
2L1.2. The only reference to any sort of temporal constraint in the relevant portion of §
2L1.2’s commentary is that the meaning of “sentence imposed” is “without regard to the
date of the conviction.” We do not interpret this as an exception to the temporal
limitation that we have concluded is embedded in § 2L1.2. Instead, the phrase “without
regard to the date of conviction” simply instructs us to consider, in applying § 2L1.2, all
of the defendant’s convictions prior to his illegal reentry, no matter how far in the past
they occurred. See, e.g., United States v. Olmos-Esparza, 484 F.3d 1111, 1113-14 (9th
Cir. 2007); United States v. Camacho-Ibarquan, 410 F.3d 1307, 1313-15 (11th Cir.
Moreover, in explaining the rationale for its definition of “sentence imposed,” the
Sentencing Commission clarified that its definition “is consistent with the case law
interpreting the term [‘sentence imposed’]. . . .” USSG App. C, Vol. II, Amendment 658
(Nov. 1, 2003). The Commission cited four cases in support of the definition it proffered.
Id. None of the four cases implicated or discussed the temporal constraint at issue in this
appeal. See United States v. Moreno-Cisneros, 319 F.3d 456 (9th Cir. 2003) (holding that
the defendant’s “sentence imposed” exceeded 13 months where the defendant received an
increased sentence upon revocation of probation imposed prior to the defendant’s
deportation); United States v. Compian-Torres, 320 F.3d 514 (5th Cir. 2003) (reaching
the same conclusion as Moreno-Cisneros where the defendant’s sentence had been
increased due to revocation of probation prior to deportation); United States v. HidalgoMacias, 300 F.3d 281 (2d Cir. 2002) (per curiam) (same); United States v. RodriguezArreola, 313 F.3d 1064 (8th Cir. 2002) (establishing that the length of the “sentence
imposed” was the maximum term the defendant could have served where the only
imposition of sentence occurred prior to the defendant’s deportation). Notably, the
Commission made no reference to United States v. Guzman-Bera, 216 F.3d 1019 (11th
Cir. 2000) (per curiam), a case which did explicitly address and recognize the temporal
constraint in § 2L1.2 with regard to both conviction and sentencing, albeit in the
aggravated felony context. The temporal constraint for imposition of sentences inherent
in § 2L1.2 had been plainly recognized in Guzman-Bera — before the 2003 amendments
were enacted. The Commission nevertheless ignored the matter and referenced only
cases involving pre-deportation probation revocations in its 2003 amendment.
If the Commission had, in its commentary or § 2L1.2 itself, addressed or at least
mentioned the temporal constraint that has arisen in Mr. Rosales’s case, we would, of
course, give great deference to its interpretation of the Guidelines. See United States v.
Morris, 562 F.3d 1131, 1136 (10th Cir. 2009). Unfortunately for the government, the
pertinent Application Note fails to make any reference to the temporal restraint embodied
in § 2L1.2(b)(1) — that the prior conviction and imposition of sentence must occur before
the defendant illegally reenters the country. We are not ignoring the commentary on the
grounds that it is in conflict with the Guidelines themselves; instead, we find that the
commentary offers no guidance at all as to the temporal constraint lying at the heart of
this appeal. We therefore decline to conclude that the commentary compels the result
advocated by the government.
Our conclusion that the commentary offers no guidance as to the temporal restraint
in § 2L1.2 does not render the relevant portion of the commentary meaningless or
superfluous. If, for example, a defendant is on probation for a pre-deportation drug
trafficking felony and has his sentence increased upon revocation of probation before he
is deported, the commentary clarifies that his post-revocation sentence, which would
clearly satisfy the temporal restraint in § 2L1.2, should be included in calculating his
enhancement level. The result in this hypothetical example is not at all obvious without
the interpretive guidance offered in the commentary to § 2L1.2.
We also note that our interpretation of § 2L1.2 is consistent with its overall
purpose as part of the Guidelines sentencing scheme. The parties agree that the purpose
of § 2L1.2(b)(1) is to punish illegal reentry more severely where the defendant has
committed one or more of certain enumerated prior crimes (in this case, a drug trafficking
felony). The method for determining the seriousness of the prior drug trafficking felony
is clearly and numerically prescribed — the length of the sentence for the earlier crime is
determinative of the degree of enhancement — even though it ultimately provides only a
rough measure of seriousness. The Commission’s approach is, in our view,
straightforward: if the defendant received a long sentence for a drug trafficking crime
before he was deported, he is probably a serious drug offender and we therefore must
punish more severely his subsequent (i.e. post-increased sentencing) illegal reentry.4 We
agree with Mr. Rosales that the Commission did not intend consideration of a sentence
imposed as a result of post-deportation actions (in this case, illegally reentering the
country), even if technically imposed as part of the punishment process for an earlier
Mr. Rosales’s act of illegally reentering the country reveals nothing about the
seriousness of his drug trafficking conviction at the time he violated 8 U.S.C. § 1326. It
would be inconsistent with the purpose of § 2L1.2 — whose text draws a distinction
between pre- and post-illegal reentry actions — to consider revocation of his probation
resulting from the base offense of illegal reentry in measuring the seriousness of his
earlier drug trafficking felony.
We acknowledge that our decision is squarely in conflict with the Second Circuit’s
holding in United States v. Compres-Paulino, 393 F.3d 116 (2d Cir. 2004) (per curiam).
To alleviate a concern of the dissent, we should clarify that we do not suggest
that probation revocation sentences should be ignored altogether in determining the
applicability of § 2L1.2, or any other sentencing enhancement for that matter. See
dissenting op. at 7. Indeed, we explicitly set forth an example of a case where a probation
revocation sentence must quite rightly play a role in determining the applicability of the §
2L1.2 enhancement. See supra at p. 11.
We disagree with that ruling for the reasons elaborated above. One particular concern we
have with that decision is the disparate treatment it gives to like offenders whose
prosecutions have happened to differ sequentially. As Mr. Rosales points out, if we were
to adopt the Second Circuit’s rule, Mr. Rosales would face more substantially increased
punishment solely because of the happenstance that his state probation was revoked
before his federal prosecution commenced. This concern has also been shared by the
Fifth and Seventh Circuits. See United States v. Bustillos-Pena, 612 F.3d 863, 867-68
(5th Cir. 2010); United States v. Lopez, 634 F.3d 948, 951-52 (7th Cir. 2011). The
possibility of anomaly is not motivating us to “rewrite the Guidelines,” a practice against
which we admonished in United States v. Dozier, 555 F.3d 1136, 1141 (10th Cir. 2009).
Instead, we simply bolster our conclusion, which is grounded in the Guidelines text, by
acknowledging that it avoids needless and nonsensical aberrant results.
Although not dispositive to our resolution of the issue at hand, we find it
noteworthy that the Sentencing Commission has failed to amend § 2L1.2 despite the
holdings of the Fifth and Seventh Circuits, which have interpreted § 2L1.2 in the manner
urged by Mr. Rosales. We do not go as far as characterizing the Commission’s silence on
the matter as affirmative assent to the positions of these circuits, especially given that the
circuit split on this issue has only become pronounced quite recently; the Fifth Circuit’s
opinion in Bustillos-Pena, issued in July 2010, represented the first direct conflict with
the Second Circuit’s 2004 opinion in Compres-Paulino. The Seventh Circuit opinion in
Lopez was issued in March 2011, just one month prior to the Commission’s submission of
the 2011 proposed amendments to Congress. We would err to unabashedly speculate that
the Commission’s silence on this narrow issue of interpretation necessarily constitutes
dispositive agreement with the Fifth and Seventh Circuits and disagreement with the
Second Circuit. Nevertheless, the Commission’s failure to address this issue — the 2011
proposed amendments, submitted in April 2011, make no mention of it — offers at least a
modicum of further support for the notion that the Fifth and Seventh Circuits’
construction of the provision is not inconsistent with the Commission’s intention. Cf.
Braxton v. United States, 500 U.S. 344, 348 (1991) (stating that Congress necessarily
contemplated that the Sentencing Commission, in carrying out its duty under 28 U.S.C. §
994(o) to revise the Guidelines, would issue clarifying revisions in light of conflicting
judicial decisions); USSG App. C, Vol. III, Amendment 754 (Nov. 1, 2011) (offering no
clarification of the “temporal constraint” issue litigated in this case as well as Lopez and
Bustillos-Pena). We conclude that the best understanding of § 2L1.2 incorporates a
temporal restraint with regard to the imposition of the defendant’s earlier sentence.
Having concluded that the district court misapplied the Sentencing Guidelines, we
must determine whether to remand Mr. Rosales’s case to the district court for
resentencing. Although the Guidelines range before the district court is advisory in
nature, it is the “foundation or starting point from which the sentencing process
proceeds”; absent any showing of harmless error, we must reject a sentence “premised on
an erroneous Guidelines calculation.” United States v. Rendon-Alamo, 621 F.3d 1307,
1308 (10th Cir. 2010) (quotations omitted); see also United States v. Keck, 643 F.3d 789,
798 (10th Cir. 2011). The government bears the burden of proving harmless error by a
preponderance of the evidence. Harmless error is defined as an error that “did not affect
the district court’s selection of the sentence imposed.” Keck, 643 F.3d at 798 (citing
United States v. Labastida-Segura, 396 F.3d 1140, 1143 (10th Cir. 2005)). Having failed
to argue that any error by the district court was harmless, the government has not met its
Mr. Rosales has conceded that he is subject to the 12-level enhancement in §
2L1.2(b)(1)(B). The district court should recalculate Mr. Rosales’s guidelines range with
the smaller 12-level enhancement from § 2L1.2(b)(1)(B) replacing the 16-level
enhancement from § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A) and proceed accordingly. We REMAND to the
district court for resentencing in accordance with this opinion.
10-4224, United States v. Rosales-Garcia
Of course, we’re all guilty of venial syntactical sins. And our federal government
can claim no exception. Which takes us to USSG § 2L1.2(b)(1) and this jumble of
prepositional phrases —
If the defendant previously was deported, or unlawfully remained in the United
States, after —
(A) a conviction for a felony that is (i) a drug trafficking offense for which the
sentence imposed exceeded thirteen months . . . [add a sentencing enhancement].
This has to be a sentence only a grammar teacher could love. We have here our old
nemesis the passive voice, followed by a scraggly expression of time (“previously . . .
after”), then a train of prepositional phrases linked one after another and themselves
rudely interrupted by a pair of parenthetical punctuations.
Happily, our role isn’t to grade the grammar, only discern the meaning. And often
a speaker’s meaning can be clear even when his grammar isn’t. We know from context
what the child means when talking about the telescope (because background knowledge
tells us, say, that the child has a telescope and the man and hill do not). Context likewise
explains what the newspaper is getting at (because, for example, the first sentence of the
article makes clear the brothers hadn’t seen each other in years). Even when the
grammar’s gnarled, meaning often can be straightforward enough.
And that well describes this case. At first blush, one might wonder whether only a
conviction for a drug trafficking felony must precede a defendant’s deportation — or
whether the conviction and the imposition of a full 13 month sentence must both predate
the deportation. The grammar and language of the guideline provision before us supply
ample support for each of these competing readings. But, as with much in life, when we
bother to consult the directions (the relevant context in this case), what at first appears
confusing proves disarmingly simple.
First, though, the jumble of parts that creates the confusion.
The prepositional phrase that’s the focus of our attention — “for which the
sentence imposed exceeded thirteen months” — comes at the caboose of the prepositional
train. It modifies the prepositional phrase just before it, describing the nature of the
required felony — “for a felony that is a drug trafficking offense” — that itself modifies
an even earlier prepositional phrase — “after a conviction” — that, finally, modifies the
phrase “was deported.” From all this, we can be sure that the deportation must come
after a conviction for a drug trafficking felony. But we can have no similar confidence
that the “sentence imposed” must. After all, the prepositional phrase discussing the
“sentence imposed” is not the next car in the prepositional train, or even the one after that,
but two modifying phrases away.
The parenthetical punctuation only serves to accentuate the grammatical
ambiguity. “[D]eported . . . after — (A) a conviction for a felony” tells us in no uncertain
terms that the deportation has to come after a felony conviction. But then the nature of
both the felony and its sentence appear in a separate, punctuationally pronounced,
subsection: “that is (i) a drug trafficking offense for which the sentence imposed
exceeded 13 months.” Here again the time specification (“after”) is separated, not just
grammatically now but also by punctuation, from the “sentence imposed.”
Neither does verb tense help much. True, the guideline asks us whether the
“sentence imposed exceeded thirteen months,” but the use of the past tense does not
necessarily mean that a defendant’s sentence must have exceeded 13 months at the time
of deportation. The guidelines are, after all, written for application by a federal
sentencing judge. And it’s equally plausible to read this phrase as referring to any
sentence imposed before the time of sentencing in the federal illegal reentry case. This
reading finds further support in the fact that the guideline introduces the type of
conviction needed to trigger the enhancement with the present tense verb “is.” This
suggests that a conviction might qualify for enhancement if it is — at the time the district
court sentences the defendant — “a drug trafficking offense for which the sentence
imposed exceeded 13 months.”
When we open the box and find we can’t make sense of the cascade of parts
flowing from it, sometimes it helps to consult the accompanying directions. And here the
sentencing commission’s commentary on how to apply its guidelines provides just the
guidance we need. The commentary expressly instructs us that in calculating the “length
of the sentence imposed” — in determining whether the sentence imposed exceeded 13
months — we must include “any term of imprisonment given upon revocation of
probation, parole, or supervised release.” USSG § 2L1.2, Application Note 1(B)(vii)
(emphasis added). The term “any” tells us to account not for some probation revocation
sentences but “every” or “all” probation revocation sentences, “of whatever kind.”
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 97 (2002).
So it is the compositional cloud now lifts. We know that deportation must come
after a conviction. That conviction must be for a felony drug trafficking offense. And
that offense must result in a sentence greater than 13 months. But in figuring the length
of the sentence we can now be sure that we must include “any terms of imprisonment
given upon revocation of probation, parole, or supervised release.” In this case, of
course, that means Mr. Rosales was indeed eligible for a sentencing enhancement. In
total and eventually, his sentence for a drug trafficking felony well exceeded 13 months.
So the district court got it right and should be affirmed.
Of course, contrary arguments can be — and have been — made about the
guideline’s meaning. But, to my mind, a careful inspection of them only serves to
confirm the correctness of the district court’s course.
Some say that the guideline is “most naturally” read to require the “sentence
imposed” to come “after” a deportation (or, presumably, after the defendant remained in
the country illegally). See, e.g., United States v. Bustillos-Pena, 612 F.3d 863, 867 (5th
Cir. 2010); Maj. Op. at 6 et seq. Yet, as we have just seen, the commission’s grammar
and punctuation — independently and together — suggest the plausible, alternate reading
that the “after” time limit applies only to the conviction, not the sentence imposed. And
where, as here, a guideline is susceptible to two plausible readings, it is the commission in
its commentary, not a court in its opinion, that gets to say what the provision “most
naturally” means. The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized just this point,
instructing that the sentencing commission’s commentary resolving ambiguities in the
guidelines must be treated as “authoritative.” Stinson v. United States, 508 U.S. 36, 38
To this, some respond that the commentary doesn’t speak to the question before
us. They suggest that the commentary tells us only that in applying the guideline courts
may look to “all of the defendant’s convictions prior to his illegal reentry.” Maj. Op. at
9; see also id. at 8-12; cf. United States v. Lopez, 634 F.3d 948, 952-53 (7th Cir. 2011).
But the problem with this argument is that it reads into the commentary limiting language
that simply isn’t there. The commentary does not say that the “sentence imposed”
includes only time served “prior to his illegal reentry.” In fact, the commentary tells us
exactly the opposite. It instructs that, when calculating the “length of the sentence
imposed,” we are to take account of “any term of imprisonment given upon revocation.”
And that plain direction tells us all we need to know.1
Retreating from the language of the guideline and commentary, some say that
sound policy would be better served by limiting § 2L1.2’s enhancement only to
defendants who were sentenced to more than thirteen months prior to deportation. Only
pre-deportation prison time, the argument goes, is a valid measure of the seriousness of
the underlying felony. Post-deportation revocation sentences are only “technically
imposed” as part of the “earlier felony.” Maj. Op. at 12; Bustillos-Pena, 612 F.3d at 867;
Lopez, 634 F.3d at 951. This argument, however, simply mistakes our role. Sentencing
The majority seeks to justify reading its new and very different language into the
commentary based on historical inferences. The majority points out that, in adopting the 2003
amendment, the sentencing commission said its amendment was “consistent” with four circuit
cases allowing the aggregation of original and pre-deportation revocation sentences. Maj. Op. at
9-10. But, as the majority concedes, those cases didn’t address, one way or the other, postdeportation revocation sentences. Thus, by their terms they tell us precisely nothing about the
question before us. Separately, the majority says the commission neglected to cite one circuit
case that did discuss post-deportation revocation sentences. But what inference, if any, should
be drawn from this oversight is anyone’s guess. Still, this much has to be true: any such
guesswork cannot justify overriding the plain language of the commentary and the explanatory
note accompanying the commission’s adoption of the commentary — both of which
unambiguously direct us to take account of “any” probation revocation sentence, without regard
to any time limit. See USSG App. C., Vol. II, Amendment 658 (Nov. 1, 2003).
courts may of course choose to vary from the guidelines, but that doesn’t mean we may
rewrite them or their commentary to suit our penological preferences. See United States
v. Dozier, 555 F.3d 1136, 1141 (10th Cir. 2009). Neither, for that matter, is it clear why
prudent penological policy would distinguish between pre- and post-deportation
sentences. An infraction that causes a court to impose a revocation sentence would, after
all, seem to be no less serious after deportation than before. Nor could one plausibly
suggest that we should ignore probation revocation sentences altogether when trying to
measure the seriousness of the defendant’s offense. We’ve long rejected precisely this
view, explaining that “[a] defendant who does not abide by the terms of his probation . . .
demonstrate[s] that he should not have been given probation in the first place” and merits
instead the full prison term he is (eventually) required to serve. United States v. RuizGea, 340 F.3d 1181, 1186 (10th Cir. 2003) (quotation omitted).
Some say that restricting our attention to time served prior to the defendant’s
deportation (or unlawfully remaining in the country) is necessary to avoid “disparate”
treatment between similarly situated individuals. See Maj. Op. at 13; Bustillos-Pena, 612
F.3d at 867-68; Lopez, 634 F.3d at 952. On this line of thinking, it is unjust that the
application of a sentencing enhancement might turn on whether state or federal officials
happen to collar the defendant first. But this objection once again mistakes the nature of
our role in interpreting the guidelines, failing to abide the fact that “the possibility of
anomalous results is no[] reason to” rewrite the sentencing commission’s guidance. See
Dozier, 555 F.3d at 1141. Neither, for that matter, is it apparent that there’s even a
meaningful anomaly to worry about in the first place. Federal sentencing law usually
affords special consideration to state criminal convictions as a matter of comity — and
does so even in cases of overlapping jurisdiction where the federal sentencing result
would’ve been different if federal (rather than state) authorities had caught the offender
first. Besides, under § 2L1.2, a federal sentencing court has ample discretion to address
any fairness concerns whenever the strict application of the enhancement provision
results in an “overstate[ment]” of the seriousness of a defendant’s prior conviction.
USSG § 2L1.2, Application Note 7.
Finally, some say the rule of lenity should play a role in how we read the guideline
provision before us. See Bustillos-Pena, 612 F.3d at 868-69. But whatever role the rule
plays in the sentencing (as opposed to conviction) context, it isn’t triggered unless an
interpretive ambiguity persists after “seizing every thing from which aid can be derived.”
Smith v. United States, 508 U.S. 223, 239 (1993) (quotation marks and alterations
omitted). And, again, that’s just not our case after taking into account the sentencing
commission’s (authoritative) directions in its commentary.
In these ways then, the common objections to the district court’s course in this
case, at best, do nothing to call it into question — and, at worst, they actually tend to
confirm that the district court was right on target.
Still, one final observation, really a plea, a plea for syntactical assistance, is in
order. Though the guideline’s meaning comes clear from the commission’s commentary,
there’s no getting around the fact that the guideline’s snarl of prepositional phrases has
managed to tie us circuit judges in knots. Some read the provision as I do, see United
States v. Compres-Paulino, 393 F.3d 116, 118 (2d Cir. 2004) (per curiam); BustillosPena, 612 F.3d at 869-70 (Clement, J., dissenting); others read it as my colleagues do, see
Lopez, 634 F.3d at 949; United States v. Guzman-Bera, 216 F.3d 1019, 1020-21 (11th
Cir. 2000). And who’s right and who’s wrong about all this may be ultimately less
important than the fact we’re unable to agree. Because of our disagreement, similarly
situated defendants receive different sentences only because of the happenstance of the
circuit in which they sit. And this is surely among the most unfortunate possible
sentencing anomalies of all. One thing everyone concerned might agree on is that it
would be a welcome thing indeed if the sentencing commission would intervene to loosen
the knot we have tied, set us aright in the application of § 2L1.2, and in this way help
ensure the consistent treatment of those who appear before the federal courts.
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