Opinion ID: 2997059
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Downward Departure Based on Alien Status

Text: The government appeals the district court’s decision to grant defendant Contreras a one-point downward departure Nos. 02-3563, 02-3564 & 02-3842 19 based on its finding that his alien status and deportability would cause the conditions of confinement to be more “onerous.” The district court found that Contreras would suffer a substantial hardship because the Bureau of Prison’s (BOP) placement policy for deportable aliens “limits the discretion of the Bureau of Prisons to take into account among other things factors that would warrant more humanitarian designations like family and other matters.” Sent. Trans. at 6-16.12 We review a district court’s decision to grant a downward departure de novo. United States v. Mallon, 345 F.3d 943, 945-47 (7th Cir. 2003) (discussing the retroactive application of section 401(d) of the Prosecutorial Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003 (PROTECT Act), Pub. L. No. 108-21, 117 Stat. 650, which amended 18 U.S.C. § 3742(e)’s prior standard of review); see also United States v. Griffith, 344 F.3d 714, 718 (7th Cir. 2003) (discussing the effect of the PROTECT Act on a district court’s decision to upward depart). This court has held that “the defendant’s status as a deportable alien is relevant only insofar as it may lead to conditions of confinement, or other incidents of punishment, that are substantially more onerous than the framers of the guidelines contemplated in fixing the punishment range for the defendant’s offense.” United States v. Guzman, 236 F.3d 830, 834 (7th Cir. 2001) (emphasis added). 12 Contreras argues that the district court made the following findings: (1) Contreras would not be able to serve any time in a halfway house; (2) he would not be eligible for a minimum security facility because he would have to be sent to one of three facilities able to conduct deportation hearings; and (3) the high likelihood he would be incarcerated in an INS camp which is “much harder time.” After reviewing the record, we find that the district court made no such findings. Rather these points were advanced by Contreras in his argument to the court below. 20 Nos. 02-3563, 02-3564 & 02-3842 We then further explained that it is permissible “in exceptional circumstances” to take into account a defendant’s alienage when assessing whether his status makes his conditions of confinement “harsher by disentitling a defendant to serve any part of his sentence in a halfway house, minimum security prison, or intensive confinement center, so that the same nominal prison sentence would be, quite apart from the sequel of deportation, a more severe punishment than if the defendant were a citizen.” Id. More recently, we explained that downward departures based solely on an alien’s loss of “end-of-sentence modifications,” such as halfway house placement, “cannot be viewed as a term of imprisonment ‘substantially more onerous’ than the guidelines contemplated in fixing a punishment for a crime.” United States v. Meza-Urtado, 351 F.3d 301, 305 (7th Cir. 2003); but see Mallon, 345 F.3d at 949 (“A prisoner who is ineligible for transfer, and as a result of alienage becomes ineligible for transitional release, suffers a real disadvantage.”). The government is correct that the district court based its decision on the BOP’s policy which places alien prisoners in certain facilities. Any defendant, citizen or alien, may be placed far from loved ones and family and thus this circumstance is not substantially more onerous than contemplated by the guidelines. Furthermore, application of this logic would amount to a per se downward departure for any deportable alien, which standing alone, is an impermissible basis for granting a downward departure. United States v. Gallo-Vasquez, 284 F.3d 780 (7th Cir. 2002) (remanding based on district court’s failure to make a sufficient showing that defendant’s situation was “exceptional”). Contreras must therefore be resentenced.