Opinion ID: 702528
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Deportation Following Conviction for an Aggravated Felony

Text: 44 The second basis for downward departure was the three-year period between defendant's drug trafficking conviction and deportation. The sentencing judge did not explain why this was a mitigating factor. The three-year time period allowed Abreu-Cabrera to violate his parole, serve the remainder of his sentence, commit additional crimes and serve time in prison for those crimes. Guideline Sec. 2L1.2, application note 6 defines deported after a conviction to mean that the deportation was subsequent to the conviction, whether or not the deportation was in response to such conviction. Clearly the Sentencing Commission was concerned only with the sequence of the events, not their causation. The deportation of Abreu-Cabrera was preceded in time by a conviction for an aggravated felony. Hence, departure from the 16-level enhancement required by guideline Sec. 2L1.2(b)(2) based on the time between the conviction and deportation was inappropriate.