PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 20-4182 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. GUSTAVO PEREZ-PAZ, a/k/a Jose Gustavo Perez, a/k/a Gustavo Perez-Diaz, a/k/a Santiago Orlando-Castellano, Defendant - Appellant. -------------------------------------------- NATIONAL IMMIGRATION PROJECT OF THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD, Amicus Supporting Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Richmond. Henry E. Hudson, Senior District Judge. (3:18-cr-00101-HEH-1) Argued: March 12, 2021 Decided: June 30, 2021 Before GREGORY, Chief Judge, and FLOYD and THACKER, Circuit Judges. Vacated and remanded by published opinion. Judge Floyd wrote the opinion in which Chief Judge Gregory and Judge Thacker joined. ARGUED: Joseph Stephen Camden, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellant. Aidan Taft Grano, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Geremy C. Kamens, Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. G. Zachary Terwilliger, United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee. Khaled Alrabe, NATIONAL IMMIGRATION PROJECT OF THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD, Boston, Massachusetts, for Amicus Curiae. 2 FLOYD, Circuit Judge: Defendant-Appellant Gustavo Perez-Paz is a citizen of Honduras who first entered the United States in 1984. He has twice been removed from and subsequently reentered the United States. His case comes before us now on appeal from his guilty plea to one count of illegal reentry after deportation for an aggravated felony in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), (b)(2). He challenges his statute of conviction as unconstitutional and the district court’s sentence as procedurally unreasonable. We hold that § 1326 is constitutional, but we remand for resentencing on procedural reasonableness grounds. I. A. We briefly review Perez-Paz’s criminal history. Perez-Paz has two California felony drug convictions from 1990 and 1993, respectively. In 1993, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) discovered Perez-Paz during his incarceration in California. INS conducted removal proceedings, and Perez-Paz was removed to Honduras for the first time on January 6, 1995. Sometime thereafter, Perez-Paz illegally reentered the United States. In 1999, he was arrested in South Carolina and convicted of driving under the influence and driving with no driver’s license. In 2001, he was again arrested in South Carolina and convicted of driving with no driver’s license. Ten years later, in 2011, Perez-Paz was arrested in Virginia and convicted of driving while intoxicated and driving with no driver’s license. Immigration and Customs 3 Enforcement (ICE) discovered Perez-Paz during his incarceration in Virginia. On November 1, 2011, Perez-Paz was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia on one count of illegal reentry after deportation for an aggravated felony in violation of § 1326(a), (b)(2). Perez-Paz pleaded guilty on April 13, 2012, and he was sentenced to twenty-four months of incarceration before deportation. On July 23, 2013, following the completion of his sentence, Perez-Paz was removed to Honduras for the second time. Sometime thereafter, Perez-Paz again illegally reentered the United States. On May 2, 2018, he was arrested in Virginia and …
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