Court Opinion

ID: 9494401
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:37:12.830545+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:23.767696
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The defendants’ status as deportable aliens unnecessarily places them in a more restrictive status of confinement, and denies them access to BOP’s drug treatment, early release, and community confinement programs that are otherwise available to the general prison population. The district court had the authority to depart downward on the basis of the defendants’ immigration status, and did so. Absent an abuse of discretion, that decision is not subject to our review. See Koon v. United States, 518 U.S. 81, 91, 116 S.Ct. 2035, 135 L.Ed.2d 392 (1996); United States v. Navarro, 218 F.3d 895, 898 (8th Cir.2000) (finding that a discretionary decision not to depart from the Sentencing Guidelines is unreviewable absent either an unconstitutional motive or a court’s legally erroneous determination that it lacked authority to consider a mitigating factor); U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 5K2.0 Commentary (2000) (“District Courts have an institutional advantage over appellate courts in making these sort of determinations, especially as they see so many more Guidelines cases than appellate courts do.”) (quoting Koon, 518 U.S. at 98, 116 S.Ct. 2035).
I agree with the district court that downward departures were appropriate on these occasions, where the defendants’ immigration status alone increased the severity of their sentences. I would therefore affirm the district court’s granting of defendants’ motion for downward departure.