Opinion ID: 795501
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Deportation and Re-entry

Text: 3 Jorge Mejia emigrated legally from Mexico to the United States in 1980, together with his mother and siblings. In January 1997, when he was 28, Mejia was indicted in New York on murder (and related) charges. In April 1998, Mejia was acquitted of murder, but was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon in the second and third degree, and reckless endangerment, and sentenced to between 32 months to eight years in prison. After serving nearly four and a half years, Mejia was deported to Mexico in May 2002. 4 Following his deportation, Mejia's common-law wife and their son moved back to Mexico. Mejia claims to have found a good job there and to have rebuilt his life. In August 2004, Mejia illegally entered the United States—allegedly through California—and came to New York. Mejia claims that he was looking for his daughter (by another woman), whom he tried unsuccessfully to contact from Mexico; that he came to New York to make sure she was safe; and that he had no intention of staying in the United States for more than two or three weeks. 5 In August 2004, Mejia was arrested in Manhattan for attempting to steal a bicycle, and was charged with possession of burglar tools, criminal mischief, and attempted petit larceny. Mejia claims that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, talking in the street to an acquaintance who (without Mejia's knowledge) was in the process of stealing the bicycle. Mejia refused to plead to disorderly conduct, and was held in state custody pending trial. 6 While Mejia in state custody, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) learned of Mejia's reentry and determined that the reentry was illegal. On September 29, 2004, Mejia was indicted in the Southern District of New York on one count of illegal reentry, in violation of 8 U.S.C. §§ 1326(a) and (b)(2). Pursuant to a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequedum, Mejia was brought into federal custody on October 13, 2004. 7 On February 8, 2005, Mejia pled guilty to the illegal reentry count. In his submissions and at the sentencing hearing on July 14, 2005, Mejia conceded that his Guidelines sentence was 46 to 57 months, but raised five arguments to support a non-Guidelines sentence: [1] that his motivation—to reunite with a lost child—was unusual and sympathetic; [2] that the Guidelines for illegal reentry impermissibly double-counted his criminal history because they relied on the criminal history to enhance both the offense level and the criminal history level; [3] that the availability of fast-track programs for persons charged with illegal reentry in other judicial districts created unwarranted sentencing disparities in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(6); [4] that the Guidelines sentence did not account for time Mejia spent in state custody during the pendency of his state case; and [5] that after serving his sentence he would spend additional time in immigration custody pending deportation. The district court rejected all of the arguments except the fourth, and imposed a non-Guidelines sentence of 37 months' imprisonment to take into account the time Mejia spent in state custody. 2 8 The district court held that there is no unwarranted sentence disparity in Mejia's case that justifies a non-Guidelines sentence: 9 The fast-track programs are, essentially, exercises in prosecutorial discretion. Contrary to the defense position, I believe this is authorized under [United States v. Stanley, 928 F.2d 575 (2d Cir. 1991)].... Section 3553(a)(6) speaks of the need to avoid unwarranted sentence disparities. The key word is unwarranted. There is nothing in [United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005)] . . . which alters the principle that prosecutorial discretion is permissible or is to be frowned upon or shunned. 10 (Emphasis added.)