Isaias Pablo-Fabin, a non-citizen previously removed from the United States in 2018, was indicted for illegal reentry in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a). He pleaded guilty to the charge. At the time of his federal prosecution, Pablo-Fabin was already in custody serving an 83.25-month state sentence for lewd and lascivious battery and lewd solicitation of a child. The district court sentenced him to the statutory maximum of 24 months imprisonment for the federal crime and ordered this term to run consecutively to his undischarged state sentence. Pablo-Fabin appealed, arguing that the consecutive sentence was both procedurally and substantively unreasonable. He contended that the district court gave too much weight to his state offenses, ignored his personal history and medical concerns, and that a concurrent sentence would be sufficient to meet the goals of sentencing.
The Eleventh Circuit reviewed the sentence for abuse of discretion, applying a deferential standard to the district court's weighing of the factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). On the procedural reasonableness claim, the court noted that while the defendant failed to object to the procedural reasonableness at the hearing, requiring plain error review, the district court had explicitly acknowledged its obligation to consider the nature of the offense and the defendant's history. The court found no plain error, stating the district court's statement that a concurrent sentence would 'disserve the 3553(a) factors' was sufficient. Regarding substantive reasonableness, the court emphasized that the district court properly assigned significant weight to Pablo-Fabin's prior conviction for improper entry and his subsequent commission of serious state sex offenses against a minor relative. The court reasoned that the defendant made himself deserving of additional incarceration by using his unlawful presence to commit crimes he could not have committed had he remained outside the country. The appellate court held that the district court did not commit a clear error of judgment in weighing these factors against the defendant's arguments regarding his medical condition and personal history. The court also noted that having a federal sentence run consecutively to an unrelated state sentence does not impinge on state sovereignty, whereas allowing the federal sentence to disappear into the state sentence might risk impinging on federal sovereignty.
Pablo-Fabin must serve his 24-month federal sentence for illegal reentry consecutively to his 83.25-month state sentence for child sex abuse crimes. The decision reinforces the authority of district courts to impose consecutive sentences for unrelated state and federal conduct when the defendant's history and the nature of the offenses warrant it, particularly where the defendant reentered the country after prior warnings. It leaves open the question of how much weight must be given to medical concerns or personal history when they are outweighed by the need to punish unrelated criminal conduct.
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