United States v. Mario Roberto Bonilla-Diaz


USCA11 Case: 21-13223 Document: 41-1 Date Filed: 01/05/2023 Page: 1 of 10 [DO NOT PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ Nos. 21-13223, 21-13335 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus MARIO ROBERTO BONILLA-DIAZ, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket Nos. 8:21-cr-00155-RAL-CPT-1, 8:21-cr-00159-RAL-JSS-1 _____________________ USCA11 Case: 21-13223 Document: 41-1 Date Filed: 01/05/2023 Page: 2 of 10 2 Opinion of the Court 21-13223 Before ROSENBAUM, LAGOA, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Mario Roberto Bonilla-Diaz appeals his 42-month sentence for illegal reentry. See 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), (b)(2). He argues that two guideline enhancements that the district court applied based on prior convictions, U.S.S.G § 2L1.2(b)(1) and (3), are unconstitu- tional because they violate the equal-protection and due-process rights of noncitizens. Still, though, he concedes that Circuit prece- dent forecloses this argument. Bonilla-Diaz also maintains that his sentence, a minor downward variance from the guideline range, is substantively unreasonable. After careful review, we affirm. I. In 2021, Bonilla-Diaz pled guilty to a lone count of illegal reentry after removal following a conviction for an aggravated fel- ony. See 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), (b)(2). According to his presentence investigation report (“PSR”), Bonilla-Diaz, a native and citizen of Honduras, entered the United States in March 2004 with his mother and two minor brothers. He was apprehended in Brownsville, Texas, and released pending a hearing. In October 2004, at the age of 10, an immigration judge ordered his removal in absentia after he did not appear for a re- moval hearing. Six years later, when Bonilla-Diaz was 16, he was arrested for aggravated robbery in Texas. According to a police affidavit, he USCA11 Case: 21-13223 Document: 41-1 Date Filed: 01/05/2023 Page: 3 of 10 21-13223 Opinion of the Court 3 attempted to rob a woman and her son with a BB gun, placing it in the boy’s face, though he and his partner left when the women said they had no money. Bonilla-Diaz pled guilty and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. In April 2015, shortly after his release to parole, immigration officials executed the in absentia removal or- der and returned Bonilla-Diaz to Honduras. Three years later, in 2018, Bonilla-Diaz illegally reentered the United States in Texas. He was arrested, convicted of illegal reentry, and sentenced by a Texas federal district court to 24 months’ imprisonment. Bonilla-Diaz was removed to Honduras a second time in April 2020. According to Bonilla-Diaz, he came to the United States in 2018 with his girlfriend and daughter, who later applied for asylum, because MS-13 members had threatened his life and his family’s lives and had shot at him after he resisted their extortion attempts and refused to join the gang. After his second removal, Bonilla-Diaz again illegally reen- tered the United States. He came to the attention of immigration authorities after an arrest for battery in Florida in March 2021. When questioned by immigration officers, he said that …

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